Cyprus Mail 6 June 2023 - by Andria Kades
An overwhelming majority of Cypriots believe EU actions led to difficulties paying the bills, a Eurobarometer survey published on Tuesday revealed.
With 504 face-to-face interviews for the 2023 spring survey carried out between March 3 and 17 this year, the results showed a higher than EU average positive response to the question of whether actions of the EU impact daily life on the matter of paying bills.
A total of 91 per cent responded ‘most of the time’, 93 per cent said ‘from time to time’ while 82 per cent said ‘almost never / never.’ This is a stark difference compared to the EU average at 68 per cent for the first two categories, and 73 per cent for the latter.
The figures were the highest across the bloc.
Cyprus also had the second-lowest responses which said they were not satisfied with the measures of their government to tackle cost of living. Specifically, 84 per cent they were not satisfied with Cyprus government moves to tackle rising food or energy prices, leaving 14 per cent saying they were satisfied – and the remaining responding they don’t know.
The figures are a long way away from the EU average, with 65 per cent saying they were not satisfied and 33 per cent feeling satisfied.
An 82 per cent of Cypriots are also not satisfied with EU measures to tackle the cost of living crisis – a big step up from the EU average at 57 per cent.
Where the EU policy on supporting Ukraine is concerned, 59 per cent of Cypriots said they were satisfied, a figure lower than the bloc’s average at 69 per cent.
Despite the high prices Cyprus also registered the highest year-on-year increase in retail trade volume among EU member states, according to data for April 2023 released by Eurostat.
In April 2023, compared to the same month last year, the highest increases in total retail trade volume were observed in Cyprus (+9.4 per cent), Spain (+7.8 per cent) and Luxembourg (+6.0 per cent).
Compared with March 2023, in April 2023 the seasonally adjusted volume of retail trade remained unchanged in the euro area and increased by 0.1 per cent in the EU.
In the euro area in April 2023, compared with March 2023, the volume of retail trade increased by 0.5 per cent for nonfood products, while it decreased by 0.5 per cent for food, drinks and tobacco and by 2.3 per cent for automotive fuels.
In the EU, the volume of retail trade rose by 0.6 per cent for non-food products, while it dropped by 0.4 per cent for food, drinks and tobacco and by 2.2 per cent for automotive fuels.
