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Protests, Political Instability, And Nationwide Power Cuts Have Massive Effect On Valletta’s Businesses, Survey Finds

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Businesses in Valletta felt the pinch during 2019’s festive period, with protests and a series of nationwide power cuts proving detrimental to their performance, a survey by the Malta Chamber for SMEs has discovered.

While 2019 was predicted to be a slower than previous years, a political crisis brought on by the links of the Office of the Prime Minister to the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia left a huge effect, with protestors flooding Valletta’s streets.

A swathe of nationwide power cuts throughout December also left their mark.

In fact, the survey shows that close to 60% of all business owners in Valletta were “dissatisfied” by their performance over the festive period, with 26% putting the blame squarely on the political instability in the country, and 16% pinning the issue on power cuts.

And while Black Friday was the busiest time of shops, it still proved to be well below 2018’s results, with over half of all business owners saying it fell below expectations.

When it came to the challenges businesses will face in 2020, increasing costs, labour shortages, and continuing political instability ranked high. However, businesses are optimistic of an improvement in 2020.

300 business responded to the survey, which can be found here.

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Julian is the former editor of Lovin Malta and has a particular interest in politics, the environment, social issues, and human interest stories.

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