In this framework, Melita will offer unlimited data to its users at varying speeds. “The days of worrying about whether your internet data bundle is going to last until the end of the month are over. Thanks to Melita’s new plans, customers can now decide on a speed that matches their usage habits, and then enjoy endless data at a price that is unrivalled in Malta,” said Mireille Muscat, Head of Marketing at Melita Ltd.

“Going forward, Melita will continue to seek new ways to deliver its products in a way that meets, and exceeds our customers’ expectations. It is this approach which has enabled Melita to grow its mobile customer base to more than 150,000 subscriptions and inspires us to continue developing new ideas,” Ms Muscat added.

The three new mobile plans are called Surfer up to 3Mbps, Streamer up to 20Mbps and Racer up to 200Mbps.

The post Melita launches speed-focussed mobile plans first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

OKEx expects the new platform to allow users to access the real-time data of OKEx’s futures and perpetual swap markets of nine mainstream tokens including bitcoin (BTC), litecoin (LTC), ether price (ETH), ether classic (ETC), ripple (XRP), EOS, bitcoin cash (BCH), bitcoin SV (BSV) and tron (TRX), according to a press release sent to Business Malta.  

Additionally, OKEx expects the new feature to help its customers to get a grasp of market trends, including long/short positions ratio, basis, open interest and trading volume, buy/sell taker volume, Top Trader Sentiment Index, and top trader average margin used. 

The new data platform is also seen to provide additional insight that would help customers better identify market trends and develop their own trading strategies, the press statement says.

“Derivatives trading requires a steeper learning curve, as it involves the use of margin and leverage. Once we realized that there isn’t really much data available in the market to help users analyze market trends, we decided to build a tool that can benefit our users,” said Andy Cheung, Head of Operations of OKEx. 

“That’s why we launched this big data platform, and we are proud to say that we are the first in the industry to provide this kind of data. As a leader, we are committed to bringing the best user experience and building a healthy trading environment for all,” Mr Cheung added.

Recently, OKEx donated $4.5m — approximately €4m+ — of bitcoin to its perpetual swap market insurance fund in order to foster the confidence of customers in trading cryptocurrencies, according to a press release the company published.

The post OKEx launches trading data platform first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The primary reason for the revenue increase was a €90.9m rise in income tax.

Moreover, growth was registered under value-added tax (€56.9m), social security (€47m), grants (€44.3m), licences, taxes and fines (€15.7m), rents (€10.1m), customs and excise duties (€7.3m), miscellaneous receipts (€6.8m), fees of office (€3.6m) and reimbursements (€3.5m).

Nevertheless, drops in outlay were recorded under dividends on investment (€11.9m) and the Central Bank of Malta (€8m).

The main contributor to the expenditure increase was a €141.3m rise in programmes and initiatives. Furthermore, rises in outlay were also registered by personal emoluments (€34.6m), contributions to government entities (€21.1m) and operational and maintenance expenses (€13.4m).

The main developments in the programmes and initiatives category involved added outlays due to European Union own resources (€29.2m), state contribution (€18.3m that also features as revenue), extension of school transport network (€16.2m), social security benefits (€15m), contingency reserve (€12.9m), tax relief measures (€11.5m), medicines and surgical materials (€9.5m), cancer treatment, landscaping — Malta (both €6.8m), ex gratia payment — motor vehicles (€4.9m), childcare for all (€3.5m), solid waste management strategy (€3.4m), residential care in private homes (€3.3m) and feed-in tariff (€2.5m).

The interest component of the public debt servicing costs amounted to €94.2m in H1, some €6.7m lower than the same period in 2018.

In addition, the government’s capital expenditure registered an increase of €76.8m from the same period last year and added up to €219.5m.

The rise in outlay was due to increased outlay reported on road construction and improvements (€22.2m), EU internal security fund borders and visa (€14.6m), EU cohesion fund 2014-2020 (€14.2m), EU structural funds 2014-2020 (€13.3m), and investment incentives (€10.7m).

The government deficit of €156.2m, as reported in the Government’s Consolidated Fund by the end of June 2019, increased as compared to a deficit of €141.9 million in the same period in 2018. The main reason for the deficit is the difference between total revenue and expenditure was a higher reported increase in total expenditure in comparison to recurrent revenue.

Moreover, the government’s debt was caused by the result of an increase reported under the 62+ Malta Government Savings Bond (€98.3m) and also euro coins issued in the name of the treasury rose by €5.5m.

Finally, further decreases were recorded under Malta Government Stocks (€86.9m), Treasury Bills (€2.2m) and Foreign Loans (€0.2m). Higher holdings by government funds in Malta Government Stocks also resulted in a decrease in debt of €13.9 million.

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO.

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The total number of mobile subscriptions have been on a gradual rise in the past four years, MCA figures reveal. At the end of 2014, the figure reached 546,229 and rose to 557,583 in 2015 and 585,470 in 2016.

While the number of prepaid schemes for mobile connectivity appeared to steadily fluctuate between approximately 380,000 and 401,000 in the past four years, post-paid plans were on a gradual rise from 166,150 at the end of 2014 to 224,346 at the end of 2018.

Although mobile subscriptions outpaced fixed telephone services, still the figure for landline was on a steady rise. At the end of 2014 fixed telephone subscription were 230,361 and climbed up to 255,437 by the end of 2018.

Television subscriptions on total — including analogue, digital and IPTV services — also grew gradually from 147,880 at the end of 2014 to 165,289 at the end of 2018.

However, in another report earlier the MCA said that both fixed telephone and television subscriptions recently had been on the rise due to bundle packages, when landline internet connectivity comes with a fixed phone line and television package.

Average revenue per user (ARPU) boosted from €56.21 from the end of 2017 to €59.09 by the end of 2018 for fixed broadband. For mobile phones, ARPU jumped from €43.24 to €45.44 in the same period. Despite a visible downfall around the middle of 2018, ARPU for television went from €44.27 from the end of 2017 to €45.23 at the end of 2018. Fixed telephone line ARPU, however, was on a decline for the past four years, dropping from €33.41 at the end of 2017 to €32.60 at the end of 2018.

The MCA published the figures in its updated series of Data Report Sheet (DRS) publications with a report. The purpose of MCA’s publication is to inform the general public about the main trends and development in Malta related to electronic communications and postal services.

Further figures and visual representation of data is published in the MCA’s slideshow, available for public view at the authority’s website.

The post Mobile subscriptions in Malta rise steadily by end-2018 first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

In the first two months of the year, recurrent revenue amounted to €689.2m, up by 4.8% (€31.3m), as compared to €657.9m by the end of February a year earlier, NSO figures reveal.

The revenue was chiefly boosted by an increase in the income tax (€21.6m) and social security (€19.5m); while further growth occurred in value-added tax (€7.2m), rents (€2m), and the licences, taxes and fines segment (€0.8m).

Outlay drops occurred in dividends (€4.8m), the Central Bank of Malta (€4m), fees of office (€3.7m), reimbursements and grants (both €2.6m), customs and excise duties (€1.6m) and miscellaneous receipts (€0.5m).

Total expenditure at the end of February was up by a year-on-year 17.7% to €752.1m. Recurrent expenditure stood was up by €73.9m to €650.9m. The increase was chiefly fuelled by a €53.2m rise in programmes and initiatives, followed by personal emoluments (€14.4m), operational and maintenance expenses (€3.4m) and contributions to government entities (€3m).

“The difference between total revenue and expenditure resulted in a deficit of €62.9m being reported in the Government’s Consolidated Fund by the end of February 2019, compared to a surplus of €18.7m during the same period in 2018. The main catalysts in the difference were increased outlays in both recurrent and capital expenditure,” the NSO says in the report.

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO.

The Maltese government’s consolidated fund registered a deficit of €55m by the end of January, while recurrent revenue rose by year-on-year €19.4m (6.8%) to €302.4m — from January 2018’s €283m —, according to recent figures published by Malta’s National Statistics Office (NSO).

The post Maltese gov’t deficit grows to €62.9m by end-February first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The increase was chiefly fuelled by a 7.27% growth in intermediate goods, 0.87% boost in consumer goods and 0.24% rise in capital goods, as compared to the same month a year earlier. The energy sector, however, saw no price changes, according to NSO figures.

The price changes in the domestic sector were due to increases in intermediate goods (3.12%) and consumer goods (0.35%). The energy and capital goods sectors saw no price changes.

A year-on-year rise of 6.15% within the non-euro area and 1.96% within the euro area were the main drivers for the increase in the non-domestic prices.

The producer price index for total industry, however, only registered a slight decrease of 0.23% as compared to the preceding month. A price drop of 0.47% within intermediate goods — accompanied by no price changes in the energy, capital and consumer goods sectors — were the factors chiefly contributing to the slowing month-on-month rate.

Prices within the domestic market rose by 0.14%, due to a rise of 0.64% in the intermediate goods sector, while non-domestic prices declined by 0.46%, as compared to January.

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO.

The post Malta’s industrial producer prices rise y.o.y. 3.1% in February first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

Total foreign assets increased by €6.3bn in 2018, as compared to the preceding year, while total foreign liabilities increased by a year-on-year €5.5bn, adding up for the overall growth, the NSO said.

The level of Malta’s total foreign assets abroad amounted to €248.9bn as at the end of 2018, according to figures by the NSO. Portfolio investment accounted for 46.4% while direct investment represented 30.1% of total foreign assets. An increase of €3.2bn in other investment and €2.4bn in portfolio investment characterised Malta’s foreign assets growth for the year.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) totalled €193.7bn by the end of 2018, growing from €184.8bn recorded the end of the preceding year. FDI accounted for 80.4% of total foreign liabilities, according to NSO data. At the end of 2018, other investment represented 17.4% of total foreign liabilities amounting to €42bn, NSO added.

The post Malta’s international investment grows to €8.1bn by end-2018 first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

Food and housing saw the highest RPI rate in February, a growth of 5.15% and 2.45%, respectively, according to NSO data. The water, electricity, gas and fuels group saw the lowest rise of 0.10%, while prices for the clothing and footwear group dropped by 3.15%

Malta’s annual rate of inflation as measured by the RPI was 1.49% in January 2019, the same rate as in the preceding month, NSO said a month earlier. The twelve-month moving average rate was 1.21%.

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO.

The post Malta’s retail price inflation reaches 1.92% in February first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The most significant upward impact on annual inflation was measured in the food and non-alcoholic beverages index (3.8%), followed by the housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels segment (2.3%).

The most considerable downward impact was recorded in education (-4.4%) and the clothing and footwear index (-2.6%).

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO.

The post Malta’s inflation accelerates to 1.3% in February first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.