Clyde Caruana had no qualms about speaking frankly when he was interviewed about Malta’s economy and the upcoming Budget 2025 speech this week.
He compared resource-intensive, low-paying industries to polluters. He called out the University of Malta for its bad bookkeeping. And he said he can’t wait for KM Malta Airlines to be one-third privately owned.
Malta’s finance minister was interviewed in front of a live audience by Times of Malta editor-in-chief Herman Grech last Thursday. The interview and ensuing Q&A session lasted roughly two hours.
You can watch the entire conversation in the video above, or dip into clips about specific talking points in the videos below.
On the University of Malta and private school subsidies
“University needs to get its finances in order... we’ve been chasing them for the past two years. We allocate the necessary funding but the necessary replies never come forward... They should pull up their socks and roll up their sleeves in order, if need be, to generate income that they themselves can make use of.”
“Private schools told us ‘your actions are going to increase our costs by 50%. A significant portion of parents who send children to our schools will not afford that. It’s only fair that as a result of your actions, we do not suffer the consequences.’ And I think it’s a fair argument.”
On population growth and foreign workers
“I used to say this country needs more foreign workers, and I stand by what I said back then. But over time I used to advise, quietly at first and perhaps then a bit more vociferous, that ‘we have to be careful, this cannot continue going on forever.’... I’ve been having this discussion [for] six years or something like that.
"We need foreign workers. The issue is, how many? That is what we need to answer... In Europe the more you emit, the more you have to pay. I think we can study a similar model for our labour market."
On HSBC and APS Bank
“I’ll refrain, for the time being, from voicing my opinion about the subject, for obvious reasons.... but if in the future I have to say my two cents about the subject, I won’t mind doing so.
“So far they said they’re going to do a review, not that they’re going to sell..."
[Is HSBC leaving because of Malta’s previous greylisting?] “You’d have to ask them.”
On why he doesn't favour adding taxes
"In a country like this, which has Mediterranean traits, it doesn’t make sense to have a lot of taxation... I’m very much afraid that most of that income would go to waste because it would be badly used for projects we perhaps do not need.
"I prefer to leave money within the business community rather than having that money spent in an ineffective way. Government is not the ideal aġent to spend money. We have overruns, things that run over budget... let’s collect what is due, but I don’t see the need to collect more by imposing new taxes or increasing the rates.”