Today is budget day. Long gone are the years of being glued to the television or radio to see how much a can of tuna has increased by. It’s hard to believe that barely 30 years ago, that is what we used to do.

By modern standards, the standards that we had before the 90s would mean that most of us were living in abject poverty or on the risk line. Those few cents for a can of tuna or corned beef literally made the difference between a family getting through the month or not.

How times have changed. Malta is now the top performing economy in Europe. Our standard of living has also shot up dramatically, although our wages and salaries have not really appreciated at the same rate.

Bizarrely, one of our favoured status symbols – the car – has come back to haunt us as our roads are now gridlocked on a daily basis.

But back to the matter at hand. The Finance Minister will tonight outline the government’s plan for the next year’s spending. It is hoped that the Minister will have a shorter one than last year, which went on for over three hours. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said it will be a no surprises budget. He also said that the usual pantomime over budgets becoming easier on the public as the time for elections approaches is also over.

Of course, the government is expected to increase its spending in the areas such as the economy, social benefits and health, those are givens.

But this could be a tinkerer’s budget. Let’s forget the usual big subjects. This budget might be one which will aim to try and pump as much money as possible into the road and transport infrastructure. The government has finally admitted that the problem is literally driving people mad, but it is also affecting young students trying to get to school as well as the economy.

The Prime Minister has also touched upon the notion that Malta needs a good cleanup – top to bottom. So perhaps we can expect some embellishment projects to be announced.

The elderly and the mental health sections are also likely to get some good capital this year. And as the old adage goes “you have to spend money to make money”. We know that this government is “unashamedly pro-business” and we can probably expect more incentives which could attract foreign direct investment.

The Prime Minister also said that Malta is likely to close the financial year with a 1.6% of GDP deficit. If this government continues to perform as it has, then it might be reasonable to hope that within two years, that could be brought down to a Zero, or close to it. The PM touched on this in his speech yesterday and what people don’t seem to understand is that we are still piling on debts. We still have a sovereign debt which is about 70% of our GDP. If we stay in negative figures, that amount will rise. If we finally get into surplus, we will start chipping away at the amount in red.