The Maltese Herald was the only online Maltese press outlet that identified the fact that the Maltese government is reducing the deficit and slowly moving towards a budgetary surplus. Despite the fact we are perceived to have a bias against the Labour Party due to our views on the Labour government and the rule-of-law, we have no qualms in pointing out the positive developments that are caused as a result of government policy and work.
On the other hand, we have consistently pointed out that Malta has a growing housing affordability crisis and this is the main fundamental economic factor that is suppressing birth-rates. The government is completely ignoring this issue and is trying to patch it up with tax incentives: we think that this is delusion and the statistics of declining homeownership rates confirm this.
There is a massive inequality gap being created by the government’s policies which is not being discussed. Despite the fact that Malta has the highest economic growth forecast in the EU, Malta is still very susceptible to international trends. In addition, let’s not delude ourselves that the economic environment of a recession in Germany, is worse than the current economic Maltese environment.
As the government increases pensions on a regular basis, and the value of the property keeps getting higher, there is a section of pensioners and home-owners in Malta that are increasingly becoming better off – the government is also helping this section of society with electricity subsidies. On the other hand, the youth are becoming increasingly poorer compared to their older cohorts (at the same age) due to the housing affordability crisis. This is a trend happening all over Europe and the US and Malta is no exception.
Malta has nothing special under a Labour government. The same trends abroad are also taking place at home. The Maltese economy is increasingly and structurally being geared to favour home-owners and the older generations at the expense of the youths. This is a structural fact and should not imply that there is anything wrong with pensioners and home-owners becoming richer. Yet, no one is talking about this phenomenon in Malta because the government is successfully selling the idea that fundamentally all is well in the economy because we have high economic growth – this is absolutely not the case.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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