Generally speaking, there has been a positive reaction to the measures announced by the government in the budget for 2007 last Wednesday.

Most constituted bodies welcomed the economic results as mentioned by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi – in particular the bringing down of the deficit to 2.8 per cent of GDP, while public debt has now fallen to 66.8 per cent – as clear results of the progress that have been registered over the past year.

Of course, there is still the inflation problem that needs to be addressed, as this has risen to 3.2 per cent and therefore, unless brought down, could result in Malta being left out of the eurozone, which it plans to join in January 2008.

On an individual basis, the changes to the tax bands, coupled with the Lm1.75 given as an adjustment to the cost of living, will mean that people will have more purchasing power and this is, again, welcome news to businessmen as people will have more money to spend.

Yesterday we said that the budget for 2007 was one of no surprises. We were referring mostly to the fact that now that the government is issuing a pre-budget document in the middle of summer as a basis for discussion, the decisions that are eventually taken in the budget are more or less all known before the speech is read in Parliament.

On the other hand, there were a number of surprise reactions from some of the constituted bodies, particularly those who are often in conflict with the Nationalist government over several matters.

For example, the General Workers Union’s first reaction was that the budget will lessen part of the heavy burden that the population has had to bear. The union pointed out that “various positive measures” had been introduced, among which incentives to train workers and promote research and innovation. On the negative side, the union said that no measures were introduced to curb inflation.

It is not usual for the GWU to come out and praise the Nationalist government following a budget. And therefore any praise coming from the GWU must really be interpreted as meaning that the budget, in real terms, will help workers and pensioners to live a better life.

Neither is it normal for the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises to describe the budget as being “positive”. The GRTU is very often at loggerheads with the government over the implementation of measures that will affect its members and, generally speaking, the GRTU is quick to find fault with any new idea.

This time, the GRTU praised the budget as having moved away “from a series of old-fashioned budgets with which governments wanted to take as much as possible and not give anything in return”. The GRTU went as far as saying that “we have turned a corner”, and coming from an organisation that is often negative in its comments this perception carries more meaning.

Considering that employers’ associations have also reacted positively to the budget as proposed, saying in a nutshell that it is conducive to greater economic growth, this leaves the Malta Labour Party and Alternattiva Demokratika as the only two organisations that have heavily criticised the government’s ideas.

While the Labour Party has described the budget as being devoid of content and ideas and lacks initiative, AD has said that the budget does not have a clear vision.

Although this is understandable in the political context, considering that both are political adversaries to the PN government, it would have probably been better for them to at least point out that several measures that were taken will certainly have a positive effect on the country’s economy and the day-to-day running of families.

In this way, their criticism of other matters with which they might find fault would have been more credible.