Workers were seeing a reduction of their wages in real terms and the Budget had done nothing to address the situation, Opposition leader Adrian Delia said on Monday.

He said the cost of living adjustment given in the Budget, at just €2.33, was literally eaten away just in the past few weeks with increases in food prices.

Workers, he said, were not benefiting from economic growth. "We are seeing increased pressure on prices and wages. The people are seeing their spending power deteriorate."  

Furthermore, he said, economic growth was not coming about from production growth but from population growth, which in turn caused pressure in various sectors of the infrastructure and raised property prices.

The Budget, he said did nothing to ensure that pensions were adequate and sustainable in the long term.

On spending on roads, Dr Delia said the government was not making any new proposals to ease traffic congestion. The government was widening the roads, but this was not an adequate solution for the fast increase in the number of cars on the roads. 

The government was trying to solve today's problems while it was ignoring the problems of tomorrow. 

The only honest paragraph in the Budget speech was one which said that there was need for a long-term strategic plan for health, Dr Delia said. But this had come about after state hospitals were sold off. Indeed, this paragraph applied to all sectors. 

Dr Delia said the budget continued to mention plans for projects which were not realised, year after year. And in the education sector, there was not even mention of any new school. 

It was only the few who were enjoying wealth creation while the government was creating poverty, he said.  

Dr Delia said it was good that Malta was venturing into blockchain and other sectors but success depended on a good reputation in the financial sector, and the government was endangering this reputation, as evidenced by problems being encountered in correspondent banking. The opposition was ready to cooperate for the national institutions to be strengthened once again.  

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