Consumers ‘lack long-term trust’. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Opposition deputy leader Mario de Marco has called on the government to reach a consensus with the Opposition on the economic sector.

Speaking during the second reading of the Budget Measures Implementation Bill, Dr de Marco said the previous administration had left a strong economy behind and attracted new investment despite the global financial crisis.

Dr de Marco expressed concern on certain economic indicators including a decline in imports, exports and industrial production.

He said that while the financial and tourism sectors were doing well – confirming progress registered over the past years – certain online gaming companies were contemplating moving to other countries.

He said that hotels had registered stock sales for the summer and the number of airline seats had increased. He wondered how the government could remain complacent when the last quarter showed a reduction of nine per cent in imports and 13 per cent in exports – costing €600 million in each sector.

The drop in imports was attributed to lower importation of raw materials and consumable products, particularly durable goods.

This showed lack of long-term trust from consumers and was confirmed because retail sales during the last quarter also fell.

Industrial production declined by seven per cent in December when compared with the same period a year before, with Eurostat figures showing that Malta had registered the highest rate of loss in industrial production among all EU states.

These figures should be of concern to the finance and economy ministries, he said.

Unemployment was also raising its head with jobless figures showing an increase of 700 from 7,200 in January 2013 to 7,789 last month. Youth unemployment also increased by two per cent to 15 per cent in December.

This trend was registered even though the government had engaged 1,000 new employees in the public sector during the year.

Dr de Marco referred to possible redundancies at Arrow Pharm which, he said, were the result of a foreign merger, adding that the previous administration had tackled such challenges by creating employment in other sectors.

What was the government doing to enhance the creative and green economy sectors?

The government had still not submitted its proposals to the EU on tackling youth unemployment and had not even announced its plans on how it was to use the EU funds amounting to €1.2 billion that the Nationalist government had negotiated.