Prime Minister Joseph Muscat insisted this morning that Labour's promises, including its proposed tax cuts, were "realistic, costed, affordable and feasible".

Speaking at a press conference after some social partners warned against irresponsible promises, Dr Muscat said Labour kept its promises and the electoral programme it had prepared would "not be a document of wishful thinking".

He said that even if the government did not change any of its policies, economic growth would still be four per cent, way above the EU average. But with the measures taken by a future Labour government, the economy was projected to grow to 6.5 per cent. The proposed measures included the tax refund bonus and infrastructural projects.

Key to such future success would be a strong and stable government, Dr Muscat said.

Earlier, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said the fact that Labour had not waited to present a Budget before calling the general election was good for the economy because historically, there had always been financial slippage in election year budgets, as evident in 2003, 2008 and 2012. 

Nonetheless, he said, the Finance Ministry had completed its work on the 2018 Budget and two days ago it presented its projections to the European Commission.

The prudent projection in a no policy change scenario was a growth rate in real terms of 4 per cent next year. The average growth rate for the next five years was expected to be between four per cent and six per cent. The surplus would be maintained. 

Prof. Scicluna said the government was proud to have drastically reduced the debt and brought it below the 60 per cent of GDP benchmark. Over the coming year, it was expected that debt reduction would accelerate.