It always perturbs me when I read articles, supposedly about economic issues, written by some “businessman” or even if he happens to be “passionate about environmental issues”,  which articles then clearly suggest that the writer’s background in scientific economics is clearly very faulty, if not non-existent. The latest example is Anthony Trevisan’s ‘Claiming credit for growth’ (April 22).

I waited, uselessly, for his first quote of what are the basic ingredients of any real economic analysis – numerical indicators. He seems to be completely unaware that, in today’s manner of analysing growth, or otherwise, of an economy it is figures, and not political bias, which count.

Most competent analysts will immediately tell you that the three most important initial fundamentals for assessing economic management lie in public finance management (two) and societal economics (one). These are, put simply, annual budget situation/GDP, public debt/GDP and unemployment, and all three on an evolutionary trend over a cycle.

Trevisan must simply admit two things: (a) that, up to 2012, all these indicators showed for Malta a rapidly deteriorating trend and that (b) from 2013 to now, the trend has been solidly reversed. That is simple fact and truth, and simply does not have anything to do, as Trevisan perorates, with Panama et similia.

There would, of course, be other indicators for more detailed consideration but to try to link a stance of claiming credit for economic growth to the Panama Papers (at least the picture with the article was clearly doing so) is to show economic naivety to an extreme.

He also ventures to tell the Finance Minister what he should be doing. Should the minister, both at home and when engaged in difficult discussions with EU and IMF counterparts, be making decisions identical to those taken during the period he seems to want to give credit to for “growth” (then non-existent)?

Panama is one thing, factual current economic growth in Malta is a totally separate matter. But Trevisan fails to show he realises this in his article.