GRTU insists latest GDP figures “nothing to rejoice about”

The GRTU's Director-General Vince Farrugia has issued a vocal statement saying economic growth is not what it looks like. His statement came a day after Opposition leader Joseph Muscat asked whether Malta had indeed come out of an economic recession, and revealed that the GRTU had met with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to discuss economic growth.

“The GRTU is happy with any economic growth, but what makes us more happy is that this growth is reflected in a positive business for the self-employed. This is not the case today,” the GRTU statement issued on Monday afternoon insisted.

“The economy is still weak and it would be mean trouble if the Government thinks that everything is doing well,” the GRTU added.

If one analysed the latest GDP report, one immediately realised that “there is practically almost nothing with which we can rejoice”, the GRTU lamented.

The growth that was registered during this period came primarily from the growth that was registered “primarily from growth of the public sector due mainly to a huge increase in wages and salaries for Government workers – the only ones when the others in other EU countries have had their wages either reduced or frozen,” the GRTU insisted.

There was also growth from the financial sector which, as usual, “even when the other enterprises are being squashed, this sector continues to grow, but not serious local economic activity”, the GRTU added.

There was also growth in sectors like e-gaming, which, although reflected local activity, “surely did not reach a lot of Maltese and Gozitan entrepreneurs,” the GRTU complained.

The GRTU also lamented about the treatment it got from the Government on the micro-credit scheme as the scheme has not been implemented yet.

“That which was the best and most important proposal in the Budget 2010 that the GRTU wanted implemented immediately because it means that thousands of small enterprises and self-employed could have turned on themselves and not eaten from their capital,” the GRTU insisted.

But the GRTU’s constant pressure “served for nothing. Unfortunately the Government, instead of accelerating its implementation, continued procrastinating and blaming the European Investment Bank instead of using its own funds as proposed by the GRTU,” the GRTU statement added.