At the World Economic Forum held last week in Switzerland, the common concern of most EU leaders was the stability of the euro.
This led the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to make statements in support of the currency.
On the other hand, if one were to follow the detail of the internal political debate in most countries, one would note that the concern is not so much about the currency but rather about three common themes – the family, employment and enterprise.
In Malta we tend to share these same concerns. The threat to the euro brought about by the risk of default on the part of Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal of their sovereign debt, may seem distant to us.
Yet it is an issue that should concern us as our adoption of the euro has meant greater economic stability for us and any threat to the euro may endanger that stability.
In terms of our daily concerns, like our fellow Europeans, our main issues tend to be the family, employment and enterprise. For clarity’s sake, when we speak about the family, I am not referring to question of divorce, but rather the economic situation of the Maltese family.
Regarding the economic situation of the Maltese family, it is evident that an increasing number of people are expressing a fear that they cannot cope with the cost of living.
This may seem as nothing new as when there is not a big issue in the country, the cost of living becomes the centre of attention. Moreover, it may also need to be said that the Maltese may be feeling poorer not because of an unsustainable rate of inflation, but because there are more things they can spend their money on, and they cannot buy all they wish.
Thus the issue could be more matter of perceptions and expectations. These perceptions could be made worse if there is the fear that the situation will worsen rather than improve.
Having said this, there is objective data that may seem to be worrying. The average weekly wage per employee in real terms (that is after accounting for inflation) fell in the first six months of last year, when compared to the previous year.
Although the figures for the whole year are not yet published, it is unlikely that it will reach the peak attained in 2007. In order to address both the perceptions and a real worsening of earnings, we need measures that are evidently in favour of the middle and lower income earners, even at the cost of penalising the higher income earners.
The issue of employment may also seem to be one of perceptions rather than objective data. The uncertainty caused by the international economic recession and the cost cutting measures taken by businesses operating in Malta to survive, has certainly made most employees feel edgy.
They certainly questioned themselves whether their job was on the line or not. In most cases the fear turned to be unfounded. However, businesses are still very active in cutting costs, thereby making people wonder about the long term stability of their job.
We also need to remind ourselves that, as female participation has increased, there is today more competition for the jobs available. There is also more competition today for certain types of jobs and for part-time work, with the presence of not an insignificant number of immigrants from both Africa and Eastern Europe.
Thus employees may still feel a fear of becoming unemployed, although their own job may not be directly at risk. The answer to this is certainly not job protectionist policies but the creation of more jobs to replace those that may be lost.
This brings me to the third concern – the state of Maltese enterprise and new investment. I do not believe that anyone can fault successive governments for the strong effort they put in to generate new investment. On a few occasions these efforts did not bear fruit, but on most occasions they did.
Even in this case, one wonders whether we are talking of perceptions and reality.
Could it be possible that we may feel that there is not enough new investment and that Maltese enterprise requires more support, because we have not had a big investment for some months?
Could it be that we are looking at what is missing rather than what we have achieved?
We still need to appreciate that even though some of our daily concerns could be more the result of misguided perceptions rather than reality, there are some issues that require our attention.
I have always argued and continue to argue that we need to exercise prudence when it comes to public expenditure. Yet, we need to ask the million-dollar question: “What use is it to have our public finances in order if our daily concerns are not being understood and addressed?”