It seems odd. All of a sudden, all fears and all worries seem to have abated. Financial commentators around the world are hailing the re-emergence of the manufacturing sector where production is up all over the world – the US supplier index is up while manufacturing output in China, France, the UK, Germany and Italy is booming.

The strong industrial activity which is generated by the manufacturing sector has also led to politicians, financial experts and bank chiefs saying that risk of entering a much dreaded W-shape (or double dip) recession is now abating.

However, it is not all rosy. As mentioned in yesterday’s editorial, Greece is paying for its past misdemeanors and horrifically inflated wage increases in that it has to slash its deficit by a good 10 per cent to regain competitiveness and to be within the criteria established by the Maastricht growth and stability pact. This will inevitably mean that there will be job cuts and there will be wage cuts – it is a painful process that the Greeks will inevitably have to go through.

But it is not only Greece, it is understood that Spain is also faltering and falling behind in productivity as is Portugal. This gap has been attributed to competitiveness – or lack thereof due to the poor productivity to wage ratio.

This, we will repeat has to be taken into the context of Malta being advised, a couple of years back, to hold off large wage increases by the International Monetary Fund. To do so would prove unsustainable, we were told. If we have the sense we are born with, we would look at the plight of nations that have lived way beyond their means for far too long and realise that we should not go down that path. It is one which is dangerous, and we urge our banks to continue to render services – but not to endanger our robust system. They protected it once, we are sure they are capable of continuing to do so.

But to go back to the manufacturing-based recovery; some European nations have seen good growth in the sector, and this will hopefully translate into more jobs being created. In turn, this would put more disposable income into the market which should increase consumer confidence. Once that final ingredient is in place, the crucial issue of confidence, or that willingness to spend, we will be well and truly on the road to recovery. Malta, of course, is a different kettle of fish. Our economy is still so heavily reliant on tourism that we will only feel the benefits once Europe has recovered and visitors begin to arrive once again.

But it is not limited to tourists. Malta has some pretty big manufacturing plants. We will not name them, but suffice to say, there are chip giants, drug giants as well as smaller local companies. No doubt, increased demand will see increased production. One can reasonably surmise that if this trend continues, there will be more working hours on offer and this can only help to provide a much needed boost to our small economy.

What is certainly odd is that no one expected the major catalyst of global economic recovery to be manufacturing! It is a strange day indeed when a backbone of our past – manufacturing – makes a global return just a few years after we phased out a good many plants. Of course, the low end produce of the 80s is a far cry from the sophisticated value added products we are talking about now, and it is a world of difference, but it is just one of those funny things.