Inside a week, Malta’s tourism grew from 30 per cent to 35 per cent of GDP, that is, if statements by outgoing and incoming Malta Hotels and Restaurants chairmen are anything to go by.

Not their fault really. I blame the National Statistics Office which, for some mysterious reason, has been unwilling to identify tourism from a raft of other ‘services’ in the act of computing relative economic sectors’ contribution to the GDP.

The NSO has indeed come a long way since Malta joined the EU. It is admirably reliable and punctual, in fact always to Eurostat’s satisfaction.

Nevertheless, it never publicly corrects some atrocious statements, particularly by politicians and leaders in specific areas of economic activity.

For instance, I suggest that incoming tourism as an industry does not contribute more than 25 per cent of our GDP. Let the NSO for once correct me.