Anti-austerity protesters on Saturday took to the streets of dozens of European cities, including Madrid, Frankfurt and Lisbon, to express their anger at government cuts.

Although his popularity has sunk disastrously, many European citizens believe that France’s President Francois Hollande’s mantra of economic growth and ‘spending out of a recession’ is the recipe to beat stifled growth and increasing unemployment.

Europe is in austerity mode, and the institutions say that the strategy is yielding results in places like Greece and Portugal. Yet, the growth and spending call is not a new one.

With economics, there is always a theory – and Europe believes that the correct one is to drastically cut spending and trim waste. But in this subject, there is often a diametrically opposed theory – and the first one to put it into practice was former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He was unceremoniously booted out of office by the UK electorate, but many credit him with having managed to steer Britain quite calmly through the economic crisis when it hit the Kingdom hardest – late in 2008 and 2009. Other prominent economists have also put this theory forward and it can also be seen (in a very low-key model) in the United States.

Malta’s Government has said that it will seek growth to keep the economy going – and also to reduce the deficit. The Government, in delivering its Budget, stated that Malta’s deficit had risen to 3.3% - one percentage point above the previous government’s projection. The European Commission, in a report, projected that the deficit will hit 3.7% by the end of the year. But the Government said that it targets a figure of 2.7%.

At the same time as seeking growth, the government has said it will cut down on waste and trim excess spending – and this is probably the best way to go about it, a delicate balancing act. The current economic climate requires very focused and targeted spending. It also requires for excessive spending to be cut and for less waste. But after all, to make money, you have to spend money. At the same time, government must also make sure that funds are well spent and invested correctly. The government always has a role in this with capital projects – in terms of creating more opportunity wealth insomuch that tenders and contracts are issued. Workers are employed by third parties, who in turn fuel the local economy through the spending of their wages.

Malta has been placed under the EC’s excessive deficit procedure, but it must be pointed out that this is not something new. It has happened before and it will happen again. EU states budget deficits must be reined in to below 3 % under new European standards. The 3% benchmark is considered to be sustainable, anything above that is no-go.

But while all this is true, Malta has reasons to be optimistic. Tourism continues to boom and arrivals are on the increase – as is tourist spending. The government has pledged to address the main problem that hoteliers face – and that is reducing water and electricity bills.

In addition, Malta has the fourth lowest unemployment rate in the EU at 6.4% compared to an EU average of 12.2%. If you take into account that Spain has an unemployment rate of 27.2% with a rate double that for those under 25, it is clear that there is a very solid foundation to build on.