Businessmen are expecting that this will be the best Christmas in many years.

In an interview given to the Nationalist Party media recently, the director general of the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises was reported as saying that the budget for 2007 presented last October has given extra confidence to consumers.

This positive approach has been picked up by government representatives, and it was this week that Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg went on record saying that there seems to be greater economic activity this Christmas.

He attributed this to the fact that the budget was presented earlier in the year than usual, that incentives have been offered to businesses, that 6,100 new jobs have been created and that people have more money to spend.

The idea to present the budget in October, in this respect, has helped. For one thing, the debate on the government measures did not overlap on the preparations for the Christmas season. The budget measures were discussed and approved in Parliament by early November.

Parliament has risen for its Christmas recess rather early too – on 12 December – and this with the aim to defuse the political debate at a time when the country should unite in celebrations.

The fact that the Nationalist Party has already announced that, as it has done in the past few years, it will refrain from issuing political messages between Monday and 8 January will also help. Whether the Malta Labour Party will follow suit remains to be seen.

One also has to see whether the atmosphere of an apolitical Christmas will repeat itself next year – Christmas 2007 could either be celebrated soon after an election is held or it will fall right in the run-up for the next general poll. But that is another issue.

It is also true that the budget included measures that were aimed to spur the economy. Although the effects of the cost of living adjustment as well as the revision of the tax bands are still to come into force together with other incentives as from 1 January, Nationalist exponents are saying that this has already helped instil a feel-good factor among the people.

They believe that it is likely that this year people will be spending more money because, first of all, they have it, and secondly because they are “feeling better” than last year.

On the other hand, the Malta Labour Party continues to insist that the economy did not grow as much as it should have and that, more importantly, the feel-good factor the PN is talking about is just a perception. The MLP is saying that the man in the street is not feeling any better and that it is not true that people have more money to spend. It mentions the water and electricity surcharge as being just one of the causes that are leading to a lower quality of life.

Another factor that the MLP mentions is the fact that the government has so far been unable to control inflation, which has hovered just above the three per cent mark for several months now. This rise in the cost of living is not matched with the wage increases that are being given, and this leads the MLP to claim that more people are finding it harder to make ends meet.

It is true that at this time of the year, generally speaking, people spend lots of money on gifts for their loved ones and on entertainment. Time will tell whether this would have been the best Christmas of the past years in this respect.

What is important for politicians to keep in mind is that sweeping statements – the heavenly concept portrayed by the PN and the doom and gloom notion depicted by the MLP – are no longer believed.

The truth, as usual, always lies in between.