ECONOMIC growth creates wealth. Which is not only important for wealth’s sake: a country’s economic prosperity is almost directly responsible for the wellbeing and quality of life of a nation.
This is why it is pertinent — particularly in a post-pandemic context — that European Commission economists are predicting that this year, the Maltese economy will have the highest growth rate from all European Union economies.
Malta’s economy is expected to grow by 6%, which is one and a half times the growth rate at which the European economy is expected to expand in 2022.
Malta’s economy is expected to grow
by 6%.
The growth forecast for our country is more than double that projected for the European country with the lowest growth — Belgium.
Furthermore, the Commission’s report indicates that during 2008 and 2012, economic growth in Malta was only 2.5% or well below half that predicted for this year.
The last Nationalist administration fared even worse in terms of growth rate than the PN administration before it, which had achieved an average growth of 3%.
According to the Commission’s experts, growth in Malta this year will be due to strong domestic demand, as well as the impact of the country’s recovery and resilience plan.
That plan, which the leader of the Opposition had called an ‘omelette’, is expected by these international experts to bring our country back to its pre-pandemic economic situation by the middle of the year.
The report notes how “relative to the EU average, inflation in Malta increased only moderately in 2021.” This is expected to continue this year mainly due to Government’s decision to keep the price of energy stable. The Commission’s experts are predicting that in Malta the rise in cost of living will reach only 2.1%. This is the lowest inflation rate predicted for a country in the Union.
On average, inflation across the European Union is expected to rise to 3.9% or twice as much as in Malta. The highest inflation rate in the Union will be in Poland where prices are expected to increase by 6.8% or more than three times the rate in our country.
On average, inflation across the EU is expected to rise to 3.9% or twice as much as in Malta.
Again the Commission’s report conveniently indicates that between 2008 and 2012, the inflation rate in Malta was 2.9%, or almost one and a half times the rate forecast for this year.
Under a Nationalist administration, our country not only did not have the lowest inflation rate in the Union, but also the rate in our country was well above the European average of 2.4%.
GonziPN’s government — many of whose exponents are still part of Bernard Grech’s shadow cabinet — had even managed, through their ineptitude and addiction to austerity, to boost the inflation rate to be one and a half times that of the previous legislature led by the same party.
The austerity policies championed by GonziPN and adopted by Bernard Grech can only lead to low growth and high inflation.
In contrast, despite a pandemic, Robert Abela’s progressive policies have led to a rapid rebound in economy such that we will have the best growth rate in Europe and the lowest rate of inflation.
