There are interesting findings in the third survey, commissioned by ĠEMMA, within the Ministry of the Family, Children’s Right and Social Solidarity and undertaken by EMCS for the month of August 2020. The subject covered Household Money management during the COVID 19 pandemic.
It seems that two thirds of the population (63%) did not have any changes in their financial situation for the last 3 months. This is quite encouraging when compared to the months of May and April – an increase of average 7%.
As Mr David Spiteri Gingell, ĠEMMA Team Leade,r pointed out that Gozo is still better off than Malta as 46% of the Gozitans have a savings buffer of more than 3 months when compared to 36% of the Maltese.
A majority of the survey respondents, 76% tend to make monthly planning. When considering the present COVID situation, this trend seems to be consistant with a slight downward percentage of ±3% compared to the months of April and May.
There was a favourable result in showing that a smaller percentage of respondents felt that their financial situation had deteriorated (26% in August versus 32% in May) whilst 79% feel that they are in control of their financial situation.
However as stated by Mr David Spiteri Gingell, ’ It is understandable that 56% of the participants responded that they are cautious when planning major purchases due to the economic uncertainty presently persisting due to the pandemic.”
He continued by stressing the importance of ĠEMMA, now more than ever, to continue educating the public how to manage their finances by budgeting, planning for their retirement and saving. Referring to the survey, Mr Spiteri Gingell stated that ‘ It is worryiing that 80% of respondents do not have a retirement pension plan over and above that provided by government.’
This is one of the tasks that ĠEMMA has embarked on for the last 3 years through the signing of various MOU with reputable financial institutions as its inner stakeholders such as Banks, Insurance companies as well as unions. As explained by Mr Spiteri Gingell, through these partnerships, ĠEMMA has organised seminars, educational activities including plays and competitions for primary schools, established a foothold in the Malta College for Arts, science and Techology MCAST through financial literacy accredited Course at MQF award level 3 to those working with disadvantaged groups.
Various other financial capability education campaigns are presently being run by ĠEMMA, co-financed under the European Social Fund whch are directed towards 14 different categories of persons.
This campaign seeks to educate specific groups of the populations on financial capability skills and knowledge with the aim of being in a better position to take best suited financial decisions.
Working closing with the Ministry for Education and Employment in organising educational activities for school children both for state and non-state schools, instilling in them the importance of money will be investing in tomorrow’s adults whilst boosting also the economy in general, concluded Mr David Spiteri Gingell.
For more information on financial capability one may visit ĠEMMA website – gemma.gov.mt