Economic growth will not decrease as much as has been projected by a credit rating agency through planned public expenditure, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said today.

He was reacting to the latest country outlook report published by the Fitch credit rating agency yesterday, which predicted economic growth would dip from 4.7 per cent to 3.2 per cent.

Addressing a press conference outside the Parliament building, Prof. Scicluna said the high rate of growth experienced last year had been in no small part due to the spending of large chunks of EU funds which would otherwise have been lost.

“What the Fitch report did not foresee is that the government plans to continue injecting public capital into major projects over the course of the next year,” he said, adding that this would see the economy grow at a faster pace than predicted.

The report gave Malta a stable outlook and affirmed its ‘A’ rating.

Prof. Scicluna said an increase in exports was also expected, which was beneficial to the economy and a sign of growth.

Fitch also gave a positive outlook for Malta’s public finances, with better performances in debt levels. National debt is expected to reach 60.6 per cent in 2017.

Prof. Scicluna said the report had, in line with the government’s plans, highlighted the health and education sectors as two which could become the “engine” of the local economy.

“The government is planning to invest in these sectors and the potential is being recognised by international rating agencies,” Prof. Scicluna said.