This time next week we will all be analysing, discussing and dissecting the Budget 2014 which is to be presented in Parliament next Monday.

This time, beyond the countless debates in the country, on the web and on all sorts of television stations, the blogs and the social media, we will have a new authoritative voice analysing the budget – that of the Commission which is due to come out with its analysis later on in mid-November.

At this point, many constituted bodies have issued their papers in preparation for the budget, listing their various requests.

The government, of course, is bound to its electoral commitments and the budget serves to highlight which of these commitments are to be met in the coming year.

But beyond that, the government must keep the ship of state in mind and guide that ship according to the troubled or less troubled waters the country finds itself in.

On the face of it, and by the most acceptable benchmark, i.e. the level of employment, Malta has not been doing badly at all.

The recent spat between the Minister for Finance and the National Statistics Office regarding growth registered in Q2 serves to highlight that, if this figure is true, Malta must have enjoyed the best growth rate in the eurozone in Q2.

Nevertheless, many structural weaknesses temper this optimism and one would be blind and insensitive if one were to disregard the signs.

The story we carry on our front page today highlights the problems and difficulties many find in doing business in Malta. This is a very serious issue and this is not the first time it has been raised by many surveys and ratings. Time and again, the same issues crop up. One hopes that a change in government finally succeeds in doing something strategic and structural about the problems that have been identified, but one waits, of course, for this to be confirmed in a tangible manner.

At the same time, the country is very much an open economy in a rough sea and over the past years has been negatively impacted by the euro crisis and an unprecedented world crisis. Malta itself, then, had its own problems that resulted in Malta slipping over the 30% public deficit figure and the 70% public debt line. There is more to add, if one were to look at the whole picture: public debt is much wider than that if one considers all the government-guaranteed debt.

In these circumstances, one looks to the coming budget to see if the right macroeconomic approach has been chosen to bring Malta back to the right and the virtuous and to get the Commission to remove the stigma of an Excessive  Deficit Procedure.

The government, too, knows the state of its revenues and expenditures and would be expected to address any shortfalls in this direction.

Governing a country, even a minuscule one such as ours, requires balance and far sightedness. The country waits to see next week if its new government is so.