Opposition Leader Adrian Delia is reported to have said that “the government’s plan was not to grow the economy through productivity or the development of new sectors but, instead, to achieve it with a higher population” (‘Does the government only want foreigners from Europe, Delia asks – Economic growth fuelled by working population rise’ (July 9).

As it happens, in a letter published in this paper on the same date, in reply to certain assertions by Michael Briguglio, I had already pointed out that the facts show the economy has been diversified away from too much reliance on certain sectors.

Now I find that I have to write again to point out that the assertion that the economy is growing through population rather than productivity is not correct.

First of all, real labour productivity per worker in Malta in 2017 was 12.1 per cent higher than in 2012 (that’s triple the growth rate in the EU) while it was 15.7 per cent higher than in 2003 (that’s more than four percentage points higher than the EU growth rate).

Secondly, it is simply not correct that productivity growth was merely due to a higher population. In fact, the ratio of GDP growth to population growth in 2017 versus 2012 was 1.26 and that in 2012 versus 2001 was 1.20. This shows the economy has been growing both through higher productivity and population.