Malta’s finances were not on a sound footing because the government had adopted a patchwork policy, the Labour Party said yesterday.

Opposition finance spokesman Karmenu Vella said in a statement that though the Prime Minister said the 2010 deficit was down by €17 million compared with the previous year, in reality he was comparing the financial results with forecasts made two months before the end of the year.

When comparing the results with the financial forecasts announced at the end of 2009, Lawrence Gonzi had said Malta was not impacted by the international recession because of his government’s policies, Mr Vella said.

However, the government was €40 million down and €140 million away from its deficit forecast for 2010.

Though the government was meant to save an annual €40 million on the shipyards and another €60 million in subsidies to Maltese families following the increase in the price of utilities, the deficit for 2010 was still €46 million more than 2008 and the country’s debt in the past two years increased by €645 million.

This figure did not include government guaranteed debt which, up to September, amounted to nearly €230 million. This in turn led to increase in the government’s expenditure of nearly €200 million a year just to service debts.

The country’s finances were weak and the government was looking to survive until the next election, Mr Vella said.

“Should it win this election again, the Nationalist Party will again start its chant about the need for sacrifices,” he said. “It was clear that the people’s sacrifices in the past years had not translated into anything”.