Mini-Budget is needed

I feel that the IMF’s Malta economist had his/her tongue firmly in the cheek when side-commenting that “the deficit widened to 3.3 per cent of GDP in 2012 due to the election cycle”.

Last November it was projected at 2.3 per cent but was allowed to balloon by 40 per cent to 3.3 per cent of GDP. Surely, no election cycle alone could possibly achieve such a feat!

Surprisingly, the European Commission has not required a revision for 2013 that would reflect the additional post-Budget commitments and the perceived optimism in its revenue-earning capacity in a scenario of a continuing recession all over the EU. Or else the minister has been very persuasive in promising fiscal consolidation and sustainability, hopefully not through any curtailment of the capital part of the 2013 Budget.

How any finance minister can endure 10 months with someone else’s budget is beyond my comprehension. There is nothing to stop him launching a mini-Budget for the second half of this year, particularly to factor in, inter alia, the miserable growth expectations all over the eurozone and, indeed, the whole EU. At least it would be his own: half a loaf...