Budget deficit

During the election campaign, the Labour Party stressed it was basing its promises and electoral programme on EU projections regarding the deficit and debt, and not the Nationalist government’s.

However, Malta now has a budget with a projected deficit of 3.7 per cent, almost one per cent higher than what the EU projected for the year.

It would surely make more sense if the Finance Minister gave a detailed explanation about how this hefty increase came about.

During the election campaign Labour stressed it would not resort to pointing out the previous government’s failures as an excuse, but now they are accusing the former PN government of being responsible for the surge in the deficit.

Even if the electorate had to believe such accusations, it doesn’t make sense since the Nationalist Party was in government for only the first three months of this year, during which no budget was approved, having no majority in Parliament.

Why isn’t the EU believing the Labour government when it says it will reduce the deficit by the end of the year?