When the government stops patting itself on the back and decides to look a bit deeper into some of the problems facing the economy, it will find that not everything is going so well as it invariably says in the endless tit-for-tat kind of political debate that goes on in the country. On the same day the Ministry of Finance launched the 2015 pre-budget document, announcing robust economic growth, a global competitive index by the World Economic Forum gave Malta a wake-up call.

In just one year, Malta slipped six places in the ranking and found itself back to where it stood in its 2012–2013 report, in 47th place out of 144 countries. In one blow, therefore, the index robbed the ministry of the fine words it used to describe Malta’s “biggest improvement in its ranking” for 2013-2014. Not a fine advertisement for Malta at all, but what particularly jarred was the remark made in a government statement that “the slightly-lower score followed a record high position” in the previous year. Unwisely, the government made it sound as if losing six places in one go does not matter since the country is only back to where it was a year before. What kind of an argument is this?

The country ought to have worked harder to move forward, not backwards. It is true that the economy has made further progress, that the government is managing to cut the deficit to below the three per cent threshold allowed under EU rules, and that the country is doing well in economic growth, but, if living standards are to be improved further, it would have to do even better all round.

To do better, the country would have to make a greater effort at removing obstacles to growth and to make it easier to do business. There are indications that the government is taking the task of cutting bureaucracy seriously enough, and one index in the global competitive index, that for the ‘burden of government regulations’, shows that improvement is being made, with the ranking improving to 76 from 86. This is a significant advance.

But other indices are not so encouraging. In an index indicating ‘favouritism in decisions of government officials’, Malta has slipped to the 72nd place, from 60th. This is damaging, and ought to serve as an eye-opener to the government. In the ‘wasteful of government spending’, another important indicator, Malta slipped two places, from 32nd to 34th place, confirming the criticism the government is getting in this regard.

Also somewhat disquieting are the indices for ‘transparency of government policy-making’, from 60th to 65th; basic requirements, from 34th to 35th; institutions, from 37th to 40th; health and primary education, from 15th to 20th; labour market efficiency, from 43rd to 54th.

As it happens, Malta did not place well in another important index, called ‘Doing Business’, a report for local firms done last year by the World Bank. In the ‘ease of doing business index’, it placed 102nd, out of 189 countries.

So, while the overall picture is not bad, there are grey patches that would need to be removed if the island is to remain attractive as a destination for foreign investment.