The vice president of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovkis said today that the Maltese economy was moving ahead in the right direction. However he said that Malta still needed to address certain challenges such as the long term sustainability of its pensions system and health care.

Following talks with Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, the commissioner said that Malta was managing to maintain growth rates that were much better than the EU average.

Asked whether the commission was satisfied with the growth of the public sector, the commissioner said this should be kept in check and must be sustainable.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said that Malta had been reducing its debt and deficit every year and the size of the public sector remained the same when compared to economic growth. Since labour was elected the public sector increased by 3,000 new employees.

The Commissioner had a meeting with Opposition leader Simon Busuttil in the afternoon.

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