With all the to-ing and fro-ing on the issue of Standard & Poor’s downgrade of Malta’s credit rating, the political parties seem to have forgotten one thing – the issue still needs to be dealt with.

As soon as S&P downgraded Malta’s rating, both the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party went into blame game mode, accusing each other of being the cause.

But it transpires that both the government and opposition were right in their mutual blame game over accountability for Malta’s credit downgrading.

In fact, S&P cited both the delay in the implementation of Budget 2013 as well as the fact that public debt has increased, and that it could increase further, as the main determining factors in the downgrade. This means that the government was right on one count, while the PL was right on the other.

The agency, in its first point observed how the delay in Budget 2013 until after the 9 March election “raises questions about the government's ability to restore the  fiscal flexibility it has gradually lost, and resolving the recurrent  budgetary risks caused by loss-making state-owned enterprises”.

In its second point, S&P noted that gross general government debt has risen to just over 75% of gross domestic product, “and could continue to increase on the back of weaker-than-projected growth or stock-flow adjustments”.

The agency lowered its long-term sovereign credit rating for Malta to BBB+ with a stable outlook considering “Malta's relative resilience to the ongoing political, financial, and monetary challenges in the eurozone”.  It also affirmed the country’s short-term rating at A-2.

On the plus side, S&P said the ratings were supported by the country’s strong political institutions and its “relative resilience”.

But on the downside, the agency cited “Malta's sizable government debt burden; significant contingent liabilities from what we view as permanently loss-making state enterprises; the external vulnerabilities of the narrowly based economy; and structural issues such as high private-sector indebtedness”.  It also observed that, despite recent improvements, female labour force participation remains very low.

So all in all, it seems that both parties are right, and both are wrong. But the crux of the matter is that rather than playing the blame game, both parties ought to have structured their dialogue in a different manner. It would have been far more healthy for the country – and our credit rating – if both parties had stated what their plans were to continue to bolster Malta’s resilience and how they would work to get our economy’s credit rating back to a higher level.

What both parties sometimes seem to forget is that in just 6 or so weeks time, someone has to govern this country and run its administration. One understands that political mind games are always played during an election campaign, anywhere in the world. But to put our economy at risk by making supercilious comments is just irresponsible.