Economy indicators over the past months have shown worrying negative trends, notwithstanding the Prime Minister's call for everyone to be positive and labelling 'negative' and 'traitor' whoever criticises him or his government. Unfortunately, it seems the economy is not driven forward by smiles and positiveness.
In an article in Il-Mument last December I had highlighted the huge decrease in industrial production experienced by Malta in 2013, a year in which Europe recovered, compared to the increase experienced in 2012 when Europe was on the decline. Local newspapers have now picked up the Eurostat report. In brief, it results that in 2012 Malta registered the largest increase in industrial production in Europe while Europe experienced an overall average decrease, in contrast with 2013 in which Malta registered the largest decrease in industrial production in Europe while Europe experienced an overall average increase. This is not only worrying, but clearly shows the huge difference in economic leadership between the current and the previous administration.
Moreover, the trade gap keeps widening with huge decreases in both exports and imports. Unemployment has kept increasing, with a month by month steady increase of 600 people registering for unemployment compared to the previous year. Malta has not only lost a place in the EU classification of unemployment, falling from fourth to fifth, but it has also seen a 1.1% increase in unemployment among young people under 25 years of age. This trend has led not only the Nationalist Party but also social partners to call for government to focus on job creation.
The last indicator that the proverbial shit has started to hit the fan is a decline of half a billion euro in direct foreign investment in 2013 compared to the previous year.
And how is our government reacting?
By dismissing these statistics, questioning their authenticity, or bluffing that the number of people in employment has increased (true, but not up to the demand).
And what are the solutions the Prime Minister is proposing, apart from nice rhetoric of Malta being a "land of opportunity, equality and innovation"?
- Employing people with the public service (1,000 new employees have been added to the public payroll since March 2013, while the Nationalist Party had reduced the amount of public service employees from 55,000 in 1987 to 40,000 in 2013).
- Sell passports to increase public revenue to allow government to spend more on social benefits and housing.
No long-term solutions but knee-jerk reactions which hide the problems only for the short-term. Instead of creating wealth by having more people employed in better jobs as previous administrations did, he is creating a system where government hands out jobs to the favourites (the fabled "jobs mal-Gvern") and distributing higher social benefits to the applause of the flock and the dumb.
It is becoming evident that while Muscat spent a campaign claiming that the PN was still tied to the past, he is the one intent to use the methods of the past and take the country back there. Back to the 'golden days' where people were beggars at the feet of government, rather than builders of their own future.
Far from the nice rhetoric, Labour seem intent on turning the country into a land of opportunism and equal misery, and where the only innovation observed is in creating new ways to bypass laws and codes of ethics to protect the inner circle.
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