The European Commission is due to give its reaction to the Budget on November 22, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said this afternoon.

The reaction will be given during a meeting of finance ministers which will also involve the Budgets of the other member states.

Prof Scicluna told a press conference that he was optimistic of the Commission's reaction.

This, he said, was a Budget which was narrowing the deficit to 2.1 per cent while encouraging investment and 'making work pay'.

Although the EU was projecting a widening of the deficit, the government was showing discipline in its spending, and its GDP growth projections were more conservative than the EU's, Prof Scicluna said.

Investment was not created just through financial incentives, but by cutting bureaucracy and creating the proper business environment, something which the government was working on throughout the year, he added.