Maltese customers' satisfaction in goods and services rises across the board

Maltese people are more satisfied with goods and services on offer than they were three years ago, according to the European Commission’s latest Consumer Markets Scoreboard.

The scoreboard – which monitors consumer confidence across the EU – shows that Maltese people rated the performance of 35 out of 40 key markets more positively than they had back in 2013.

The scoreboard is based on the results of a telephone survey carried out in 2015, in which 250 Maltese people participated. 

The rise in the satisfaction rating was most significant for food items, with the meat products and fruit vegetables markets both increasing by 6.8 index points and the bread, cereals, rice and pasta market increasing by 6 points.

Other notable rises in trust were witnessed in electricity services (+6.1 points) and in online gambling and lottery services (+5.7 points).

The main exceptions to the norm was the second-hand car market, which reduced by 2.9 points, while the TV subscription market (-0.7 points), bus services market (-0.4 points) and the house and garden maintenance services market (-0.2 points) saw slight declines. Trust in the vehicle insurance market remained static when compared with 2013.

Maltese consumers’ top three goods markets are meat and meat products (87.7 points), non-prescription medicines (87.5) and fruit and vegetables (87.5 points). Their top three services markets are holiday accommodation (88.3 points), airline services (87.4 points), and packaged holidays and tours (86.5 points).

The Maltese participants generally rated their goods and services markets more positively than their European peers, in particular the mortgages market (+9.2 index points higher than the EU average), the real estate market (+9.1 points  higher), and the investment products, private pensions and securities market (+8.4 points). In contrast, the public transport market was ranked 7.3 index points lower than the EU average.

In total, the EC’s scoreboard indicates that market performance has improved across the continent since the last survey was carried out, with financial services showing the biggest profess. European consumers’ top three goods markets are books, magazines and newspapers, the market for entertainment goods, and large household appliances. As for services, consumers’ three top-ranking markets are all leisure-related, ranging from holiday accommodation to cultural and entertainment services and sports services such as gyms.

“We can see from this year’s scoreboard that consumer-friendly rules, market reforms, as well as effecivve enforcement of consumer rues, have made consumers more confident in the markets,” European Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said. “We must keep this encouraging trend going, especially for markets that still underperform, like telecoms and energy. That’s why consumers are at the heart of the Commission’s priority projects, like the Digital Single Market and the Energy Union.”