Finance Minister Edward Scicluna this afternoon called on the Nationalist Party to withdraw its pre-Budget document, describing it as "an exercise in amateurism".

Surrounded by civil servants, Prof. Scicluna gave a presentation of the tables in the PN document highlighting "wrong figures" quoted in the document.

He said that the PN document was "misleading and full of mistakes".

An economist by profession, Prof. Scicluna quoted economic practices usually used in serious studies to show that the PN's methods used in the document were wrong.

He said that if one delved into the text of the document one could conclude that the Opposition has no clue on how to analyse an economy.

In the pre-Budget document, the PN makes a detailed analysis of the economy and also proposes faster implementation of the government’s proposal to improve the guaranteed national minimum pension.

Among other proposals, it reiterated its call for a reduction in the price of fuel and electricity to reflect the drop in the price of oil.

In a reaction to Prof Scicluna's comments, the Nationalist Party said it had made positive proposals for the Budget but the government came out with a negative reaction.

Rather than being stubborn and coming up with all sort of excuses, the government should heed the private sector's call for further reduction of energy tariffs. It should also stop undermining Malta's credibility through repeated cases which pointed to institutional corruption.