The Opposition spokesman on economic affairs, Gavin Gulia, said today that the government's overly optimistic economic projections and its failure to revise them, were undermining its credibility.

The Labour MP said the government needed to stop playing with figures in a puerile attempt to deceive, especially when exports were falling at a faster rate than ever seen before.

He recalled that in the Budget speech last November, the government had projected a growth rate of 3% for 2008 and 2.5% for this year as it tried to give the impression that Malta was resilient to the situation abroad.

In contrast, the European Commission was proposing a growth rate of 0.7% percent for Malta.

Since the local situation was expected to get worse, owing to low overseas demand and the situation in tourism, the European Commission's projection was more credible.

Dr Gulia observed that the Central Bank of Malta had also been optimistic in its economic forecast, but it had then revised it downward, bringing it closer to that of the Commission. Amazingly, however, the government had not revised its own calculations.

This, Dr Gulia said, was not optimism, but, at its best, mistaken calculations, and at its worst, a puerile attempt to deceive. The government, he said, should declare whether or not it agreed with the EU projection and the revision made by the Central Bank.