The official marvelling that the global recession seemed to be passing Malta by, or that the domestic economy was resilient enough practically not to feel its effects was always overly optimistic at best. There was no way that any country was going to escape the turbulence unleashed by the financial crisis that started in the last quarter of 2007, quickly followed by a vicious economic recession.

To be brave and determined to try to eke out opportunities from threatening and stressful situations is one thing. To proclaim quasi-immunity to such situations is quite another. That reality is speaking out now. Statistical data and anecdotal evidence are converging to tell the story as explicitly as can be.

Manufacturing exports are falling. So are invisible exports in the form of their huge tourism component. This is going to be one of our worst years as far as the latter sector goes. Not only are the arrival numbers persistently down, as they are in practically every other resort. Bed-night rates are plummeting. A few tourist operators have managed to play the old game and put the fear of God in many hoteliers, despite the reduced reliance on them.

The owner of one of our major hotels told me, for instance, that in May arrivals were down by 20 per cent and room rates dropped by a similar margin. That's a 40 per cent drop in one month. More than one hotelier tells me that bookings for July are abysmally low. Even though very late bookings have now become common place, it seems highly unlikely that the phenomenon will fill up the occupancy gap to date to any significance.

The summer signals are such that some hoteliers are resigned that they will end up the year with a substantial loss. They include a number who are already considering whether prospects for the coming year will be such as to persuade them to stay in business.

The official unemployment figures paint their own darkness, with the total more than 1,000 - around 16 per cent - up on a year ago. Repeated claims by the government that the economy created around 7,000 new jobs in the past year are increasingly hard to reconcile with the reality at play. Part-time employment, according to anecdotal evidence, is also feeling the pinch. That cannot be otherwise given the situation, for instance, in the tourist sector.

In manufacturing too there are still companies working a four-day week. That is bringing about incredible reactions. I learned that in one factory the workers are determined to put an end to the four-day factor and to tell the owners to lay off employees if that is necessary to revert to a five-day week. So much for workers' solidarity.

Further anecdotal evidence leading the official statistical data points to steadily declining personal consumption. The decline in demand is demonstrating itself in areas that would not usually come immediately to mind. A leading hairdresser was telling me that he is experiencing a sharp drop in demand. The fall is particularly strong among expatriate clients who use to supplement his domestic base quite nicely.

Small wonder, then, that nobody talks about the recession passing us by any longer, or marvels at how resilient we are. Rather, the government points to the effects of the recession as one major reason for the way the opposition routed it in the European Parliament elections on Saturday in terms of the number of first preferences gained by each side.

More significantly, the government has devised a broad scheme whereby it comes to the assistance of manufacturing firms feeling the sharp pinch of foreign demand for their output. Since the scheme does not - as it cannot - address the problem of depressed demand, it will take time to see to what extent it will be successful in a sustainable manner.

Meanwhile, in essence it is a brave attempt to encourage firms in difficulty to embark on new capital investment in anticipation of a recovery in foreign demand for their products through direct financial assistance. The government, one can gather, also helps to retrain a similarly aided firm's employees to prepare them for changed skills' demand.

The objective - to safeguard employment - is self-evidently good. The lack of transparency in the scheme is not at all good. The government, specifically the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, are refusing to give details of the assistance given to the various forms helped out to date. There can be no valid reason for such stubborn reticence.

The funds used in the scheme, worthwhile as it is, are public funds. When dispensing public funds the government should always be subject to strict accountability, in terms of the financial regulations.

One says that not because of any suspicion of anything untoward happening through favouritism or worse. I trust the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance implicitly in that regard. But it is not right - in fact, it is totally wrong - to keep the terms and conditions of public financial assistance confidential.

That is so also in regard to the assistance other firms who might also be in difficulty should aspire to acquire. A relevant parallel is assistance available under the various European Union schemes. The terms and conditions, arcane though they might be, are public. There are experts, at least, who are familiar with them and who help companies, for instance, to apply for assistance schemes run by Malta Enterprise.

It is not that the government has anything to hide. More likely it does not wish to encourage frivolous applications. Yet public policy has to deal with that, as well as with serious and well-thought out requests.

As the recession bites, suitable government assistance given with utmost transparency becomes all the more essential.