Malta’s Finance Minister, Clyde Caruana, said on Friday that his government planned to spend nearly €608 million on energy and food price subsidies next year, a figure in increase of EUR 135 million compared to this year’s budget.
Although this amount represents 3.6% of the country’s gross domestic product, the government is determined to continue to cushion the rise in energy prices, Caruana added.
Malta’s inflation rate continued to rise to reach 7% in August, 0.2% higher than the previous month, the National Statistics Office (NSO) revealed on Friday.
The highest inflation was recorded in the food and non-alcoholic beverages sector, where the price increase amounted to 11.3%. Prices for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels increased by 9.2%.
Compared to the rest of Europe, Malta’s inflation rate of 6.8% in July remained 2.1 percentage points lower as the inflation rate recorded in the euro area rose at 8.9%, according to the NSO.
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