The Labour Party is talking about a change of direction when what it really should be thinking of is a difference in style. Irrespective of which party is elected to government come March, this country badly needs to keep its present sense of direction if it wants to keep weathering the economic storm and work for economic growth.

The country needs to keep to its programme to reduce the deficit to below the three per cent threshold, as required under European Union rules, and to bring down the national debt. It also needs to keep to its policy of promoting those economic sectors that have helped Malta stay on an even keel.

The Nationalist Administration may have committed a number of mistakes in the past legislature but it certainly cannot be accused of taking a wrong direction. Its sense of direction cannot be faulted and Lawrence Gonzi was right when he argued the other day: “We are not in the position of Cyprus, Spain or Portugal. Why should we change direction?”

Why indeed change direction when the island’s record on the economic front must be the envy of other, much larger, countries. The question is: what alternative direction is there?

Admittedly, Labour is running a very slick election campaign but it needs to articulate its thinking in order not to confuse the electorate.

Contrary to what is happening in other countries, where governments are trying to grapple with rising unemployment and where they have had to launch a raft of austerity measures in an attempt to bring their economies back on track, this tiny island registered the second best economic performance among the 17 eurozone member states in the third quarter last year.

This is no mean feat and, yet, in the midst of all the campaigning some are trying to give the impression that the island is in the grip of an economic recession. This is simply not the case.

True, the energy tariffs may have eaten away earnings but the island’s problems are nowhere near those being experienced by other countries. Critics know this, of course, but they prefer to stick to what makes the most impact on the electorate: the energy tariffs.

When other countries have had to resort to cutting even social benefits, in this country, the gross domestic product in the third quarter last year rose by more than 1.9 per cent over the previous quarter. According to Eurostat, Malta’s performance in summer was only surpassed by Estonia’s (3.4 per cent) while, on average, the euro area’s economy contracted. Only recently, the European Commission lifted the excessive deficit procedure it had set in motion against Malta noting that, despite the impact of the economic difficulties, the island managed to bring down the deficit to the targets set by the deadline established by Brussels.

The Commission noted that, while the euro area economy had been expected to contract during the year and was only projected to grow by 0.1 per cent this year, Malta was likely to close 2012 with an economic growth of one per cent. The growth forecast for this year is of 1.6 per cent.

More than this, the Commission also forecast an increase in employment levels and a rise in domestic demand and exports. Of course, problems there are as well but, in the light of a situation where the country is moving forward, not backwards, why should Malta change direction? Doing so would simply not make sense.

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