49% of Maltese expect increase in their income

While only 9% of Maltese expect their income to fall next year, 18% have actually seen their income decline this year when compared to the previous year.

Malta stands out as being the only country in the eurozone where a larger proportion of respondents think that their household income will increase in 2016, a survey conducted in the euro zone by Eurobarometer shows. 

While 49% say their income will rise, 34% say it will stay the same and only 9% expect their income to decrease. 

But when asked to compare their present income with last year’s, 25% replied it has gone up, 18% that it has decreased and 52% that it stayed the same.  

Malta registers the fourth highest percentage of respondents who reported an increase in their income in Europe.  

In all other countries except Greece, respondents are most likely to expect their income to remain the same. In Greece 55% of respondents think their income will decrease, compared with 30% who think it will stay the same. 

A relatively high proportion of respondents (29%) also expect their income to decrease in France. 

Alongside Malta, the most positive expectations can be seen in Ireland (39% expect their household income to rise) and Estonia (34%). 

But when asked whether their income has improved over the last year, it was the Germans and Estonians (31%) who were the most likely to report an increase in income followed by the Austrians (28%) and the Maltese (25%).

Majority against 1 and 2 cent coins 

A majority of Maltese want the 1 cent and 2 cents coins demonetised. 

Around six in 10 (59%,) of respondents say that they are in favour of abolishing the 1- and 2-cent coins and applying mandatory rounding of the final sum of purchases in shops. Just fewer than four in 10 are against the idea while 3% are unable to give an opinion. 

Overall, a majority of respondents in 14 of the 19-euro area Member States are in favour of abolishing the 1 and 2 cent coins and applying mandatory rounding on the final sum of purchase. 

At least seven in 10 respondents in Ireland (74%), Finland, the Netherlands (both 73%), Slovakia, Italy (both 72%) and Belgium (71%) are in favour of this initiative while less than half of respondents share this view in Lithuania (43%), Slovenia (44%), Portugal (45%), and Latvia (47%). 

Euro makes Maltese European

Respondents in Malta (45%) are by far the most likely to hold the view that the euro has made them feel more European than before, followed by at least a third of respondents in Ireland (39%), Finland and Italy (33%). Conversely, a fifth or fewer of respondents in the Netherlands (16%), Greece (17%) and Slovakia (20%) have the same opinion. 

45% of the Maltese say it made them more European, 54% still feel the same as before.