(Adds PN's, PL's replies)
The Opposition’s analyses of the Central Bank report came a month and a half late and was based on GDP statistics published on June 8, the Labour Party said this morning.
Moreover, the analyses was full of economic mistakes. The Opposition stated that GDP growth had increased by 8.3 per cent. This was incorrect as the Central Bank report showed that the growth in gross domestic product in the first quarter this year to be 3.6 per cent.
The PN also implied that economic growth had been due to more government consumption. But the Central Bank said showed that only 0.8 per cent of the four per cent growth was the result of this.
This was against the 1.7 per cent growth registered in the first quarter of 2013, when the PN was in government.
In the same period, national debt had increased by 3.8 per cent, the biggest quarterly increase ever to be registered in Maltese history.
Then, the government had taken on six workers a day on its payroll. This was six times more than the increase in the past 12 months.
Labour Party needs crash course in English, statistics and economics
But in a reply, shadow minister Mario de Marco said that contrary to what was stated by the Labour Party, it was not the Opposition that was stating that government consumption increased by 8.3 per cent.
The Opposition quoted word for word from page 20 of the Central Bank document where it stated that government consumption rose by 8.3 per cent on a year earlier, contributing 1.6 per cent points to growth.
Also, contrary to what was stated by the Labour Party, it was the Central Bank and not the Opposition that was flagging the increase in government expenditure both in absolute terms and as a percentage of GDP growth.
The Opposition quoted verbatim extracts from the quarterly review.
Dr de Marco said that in its statement, the Labour Party tried to give the impression that the public sector headcount increased during the past Nationalist administrations.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. The public sector headcount stood at 40,893 at the end of 2012 - the last full year of a PN administration, down from 46,686 in 2004, and 55,000 in 1987.
“In the past two years, the public sector headcount, rather than continuing on this downward trend, is increasing and has reached 43,892 - that is 3,000 more than it was in 2012.”
Dr de Marco said that to calculate the number of people put on the public payroll in the past two years one had to add to the 3,000, the 1,500 public sector personnel who retired each year bringing the total of persons put on the public payroll in the past two years to 6,000.
“By the Ministry of Finance's own calculation, the public wage bill is set to increase by €127 million over a two year period and this despite of the smallest cost of living increase given in 2015. The increase in government expenditure is pushing up national debt. In the first quarter of 2015, national debt increased by €143 million when compared to the same period in the previous year.”
The Labour Party, Dr de Marco said, would do well to invest some time and money in training to be able to grasp better the concepts of basic English, statistics and economics.
Economic growth rates among best Malta ever experienced
The Labour Party said that while experts concentrated on recent statistics, the Opposition commented on statistics issued five months ago, which have since been revised.
Moreover, the figures quoted by the Opposition showed that GDP growth was four per cent in the first quarter this year and 4.2 per cent in the fourth quarter last year. These were among the best rates the country’s economy had ever experienced.
The Labour Party noted that economic growth in the last legislature had reached an average of 1.8 per cent.
It noted that jobs in the civil service increased by just 422 in the past year. This was less than the increase of 509 people in January and February 2013, when the Nationalist Party was a caretaker government.