Divergent views on economic growth

Labour's main spokesman on the economy and self-employed, Gavin Gulia said that the main contributor to the country's 3.2 per cent economic growth in the second quarter was government expenditure.

He criticised Finance Minister Tonio Fenech for not comparing the figure to last year's, when there was an economic growth of four per cent.

Mr Fenech replied by saying he was satisfied with the increase and explained he was particularly pleased with this figure in comparison to the growth rates of other countries.

He said the average EU economic growth rate was 1.6 per cent and that of the eurozone 1.4 per cent.

Mr Fenech said Dr Gavin's statement regarding government expenditure is incorrect as NSO statistics clearly indicate that economic growth was also the result of improvement in a number of sectors.