Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/538516
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 8 JULY 2015 11 Business Today www.creditinfo.com.mt info@creditinfo.com.mt Tel: 2131 2344 Your Local Partner for Credit Risk Management Solutions Supporting you all the way Hoteliers look forward to 'promising season' for tourism The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) expressed satisfaction about the reported growth in arrivals in May and stressed that hotels should not re- duce their rates as the summer is looking promising and potentially could even fi nish with another record number of arrivals. MHRA said it was working closely with the Ministry of Tourism (MOT), Malta Tourism Authority (MTA), Air Malta, the Malta International Airport (MIA) and other stakeholders to enable MHRA members to be more proactive in marketing jointly Malta for niche tourism markets. "MHRA notes with satisfaction the focus of the various stakeholders including the Ministry of Tourism, MTA, MIA and Air Malta to ensure that tourism grows in spite of the economic turmoil that is being experienced in a good number of our source markets. It is therefore clear that when all the stakeholders combine their efforts together the results are very positive," MHRA president Tony Zahra said. Total inbound visitors for May were estimated at 177,895, an increase of 5.5% when compared to the corresponding month of 2014. Total inbound tourists, adjusting for the cruise line passengers, reached a total of 177,203 in May 2015, increasing by 10,706 or +6.4% over May 2014. Growth was also registered in the number of nights spent and expenditure incurred by tourists. It is worth noting that the highest increase was recorded in tourist expenditure reaching the figure of €149 million, nearly €11 million more or +7.9% when compared to May 2014. Tourists spent a total of 1.2 million nights in May 2015, which is an increase of 67,525 more nights than in May 2014. Chinese shares slide despite government support Mainland Chinese shares have fallen further despite more meas- ures from the government aimed at stemming the sell-off in the volatile market. Over the weekend, brokerages and fund managers vowed to buy stocks, helped by a state-owned margin finance firm, which in turn would be helped with liquidity from the central bank. Despite this, the Shanghai Composite closed down 1.29% at 3,727.12. That comes despite signs of heavy money flows into Shanghai's blue chip stocks. State media said 21 brokerages had put more than 128bn yuan ($20.6bn; £13bn) into a stabilisation fund to meet their weekend pledges to support the market. About 57 mutual fund houses were also reported to have started buying equities using 2.16bn yuan of their own money. However, the significant downtrend in the market is raising concerns about whether policymakers have the ability to stabilise the market. Local reports said more than 200 Chinese-listed firms would halt trading of their shares, in an attempt protect themselves from the falling stock markets. But Bernard Aw, market strategist at trading firm IG, said he expected authorities to continue to "implement stronger measures until the stock market stabilises". In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index closed down 1.03% to 24,975.31. The rest of Asian markets experienced mixed fortunes, with some recovering losses seen on Monday on fears that Greece would exit the Eurozone after the "no" vote in Sunday's referendum. Investors were awaiting the Greek government's new proposals to be unveiled at an emergency Eurozone meeting later in the day. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 closed up 1.3% to 20,376.59 after falling more than 2% on Monday. The euro was down to 135.28 yen, but still far above a six-week low of 133.70 yen hit on Monday. In South Korea, the benchmark Kospi index ended down 0.7% at 2,040.29 - marking a three-week low. Industrial production up 9% in May over previous year Seasonally adjusted industrial production increased by 0.8 per cent in May over the previous month. When compared to May 2014, the index of industrial production adjusted for working days went up by 8.9 per cent. In May, the seasonally adjusted index of industrial production increased by 0.8 per cent to 99.5 points. An increase was registered in the production of consumer goods (1.3 per cent), while decreases were registered in the production of capital goods (2.1 per cent), intermediate goods (1.4 per cent) and energy (0.3 per cent). When compared to the corresponding month last year, the index of industrial production adjusted for working days went up by 8.9 per cent. Increases were registered in the production of intermediate goods (16.5 per cent), consumer goods (10.4 per cent) and energy (0.3 per cent). A decrease was registered in the production of capital goods.