The hot season. Schools are closed. Government workers on half-days. Soon the shut-downs will begin. Parliament is shut up for summer, the longest recess in living memory.
People flock to the beaches with no thought except to relax and stay cool and relaxed.
And yet, in this cloudless sky, two bolts of lightning on the same day.
The Bank of Valletta announced it will not distribute any dividend this year because it is facing three cases of litigation. It is being sued for €345 million but in actual fact all it was exposed to were three trusts of €2,000 each.
The details are all on page 7 and the monthly analysis of the stock market is on page 4.
The bank, the biggest one in Malta, is still very solid and the decision by the bank's board, adopted unanimously, looks like it is the best that could have been taken in the circumstances, although one cannot expect all the shareholders to understand and appreciate this.
Next, in a matter of hours, came the announcement of an increase in the price of fuel. The announcement was on the papers yesterday. In a statement soon after Enemed's announcement, the Energy ministry said that Maltese consumers, despite Enemed's price revision, are still paying 9c less for petrol, and 11c5 less for diesel than the EU average, The ministry said that the price of petrol in Malta will remain lower than 15 EU countries, and that there are only eight EU countries with lower diesel prices. The international price of oil resulted in the increase in the EU average fuel price since March, the ministry said, rising by 10c and 9c for petrol and diesel respectively.
But the ministry's statement is a tad disingenuous. A comparison with those countries that have around the same prices as Malta shows that many of them have average wages that are far superior to those obtained in Malta. Austria, for instance, has around the same prices as Malta but on an average monthly wage of €2,324.
All this goes to show that we are not without problems and that problems can sometimes emerge when you least expect them. What's the use of boasting about Malta's above-average growth when the small shareholders of BOV have to stay for a whole year without the dividend they have been expecting?
That is why businesses everywhere have to be on their guard all the time so as not to fall foul in this international globalized marketplace with all the cut-throat competition there is.
That is why we must strive to keep Malta's name free from all shadow of corruption in a world where news travel fast and where bigger countries prefer to hide their own problems and to boost our not so insignificant problems.
That is also why we have to continually seek for new initiatives, new ventures, new openings, such as is being done by the trade delegation led by the prime minister in Japan.