The Labour Party this morning accused the Opposition of making basic mistakes in its analyses of the official statistics regarding foreign direct investment.
The PL said that while the PN claimed there was a 64 per cent drop in foreign direct investment last year, the official statistics said black on white that “there was a net increase of €1.5 billion in foreign direct investment flows”.
It also said that as at June 2014, foreign direct investment in Malta was estimated at €136.8 billion, with 97.9 per cent originating from financial and insurance activities, which now include special purpose entities. This amounted to an increase of €5.6 billion over the corresponding month in 2013”.
But in an amateurish manner, the Opposition tried to compare the activity of financial entities between one quarter and another and did not realise that these companies had little presence here in terms of jobs.
The Labour Party said that when one excluded what the Opposition quoted, one would see a strong increase in investment in the real sectors, amounting to €19 million. This had dropped by €51 million during the same period under a Nationalist administration.
This development led to an increase of €13 million in the value of foreign investors assets in Malta. This was €372 million more than when the PN spokesmen were in cabinet during the previous government.