Updated | Fenech’s millions: Minister inadvertently announces ‘350 million new jobs’

Adds clarification by the Ministry for Finance

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech inadvertently announced the creation of "350 million jobs" - instead of a total investment of €350 million - by the Nationalist government in the past four years, while replying to questions raised by the Labour media.

Giving comments to the press after a visit to a pharmaceutical company in Hal Far, the finance minister was being pressed to reveal the investment supposedly carried out by Brazilian company Odebrecht in Malta.

While stating that when it set up shop in Malta the company had employed 35 persons, he went on to tell the journalist the investment the Nationalist government attracted since 2008.

But while he recounted the 10,000 new companies that set up shop in Malta - 55% of which were foreign - and the investment in 160 factories that expanded, Tonio Fenech said these all created "350 million jobs".

A spokesman later clarified that the Minister meant to say "investments of approximately €350 million".

Taking his cue from the PL billboard featuring the Prime Minister wearing the Brazilian national football shirt bearing the number '0', Fenech was quick to quip: "If Brazil 0, the rest of the world 20,000".