However it is curious that in today’s circumstances, the fact remains that compared to how I remember it did register in the past, the inflation rate is relatively low. Up to August this year, on an annual basis, it reached 1.9 per cent – not so very different from the median rate prevalent in the eurozone. It all reflects the fundamentals of a period – which apparently will not end soon – in which European inflation has remained well below past “traditional” levels, a factor that continues to underpin what effectively amounts to stagnation in the euro economies.

Maltese economic growth has stayed buoyant in a way that... Well, I would not like to repeat that it is “unprecedented”: but that’s the truth.

Despite what will be claimed in the coming months, inflation here has remained relatively low, which again, is unprecedented. Why is this happening?

There is one disquieting feature in the overall picture: the highest rise in prices up to August happened for food and non-alcoholic drinks. It stood at 3.6 per cent and would surely have hit most those households having lower incomes.

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Facebook

I was recently visited by a Facebook team. From what the three executives attending told me, it is clear that to back the rather informal package which shows up on our mobile screens, there is a huge and sophisticated operation. It could hardly have been otherwise given the billions of messages that travel daily through the Facebook system. I understood that they have offices in practically all European capitals.

Their operation is technologically, cutting edge. They explained how they proceed with their equipment and computer programmes to recognise and capture messages with unacceptable or criminal content. Though I believe they are doing their best on this score, even they have to admit that they are “not always” spot on.

They wanted to explain how careful they are to protect the privacy of Facebook users. There is no way I could take at face value what they might have said on this matter. Absolutely, I cannot believe that the private information available to Facebook does not eventually get used for commercial or even indeed political ends, if not directly by Facebook animators, then by other interests.

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Immigration in France

All of a sudden, French President Macron has changed direction. He is insisting that the government should put immigration at the top of its political agenda. Up to not so long ago, the topic was apparently being ignored by the macronistas. The President and his people were busy proclaiming everywhere the call to promote European solidarity and humanism. There was nothing to criticise about this – to the contrary.

Now, Macron has been saying: The immigration issue does not concern the bourgeois strata in society. These live in their own districts and are not affected by it. But the popular strata are not in that situation. We cannot ignore them any more.

Rarely has the immigration problem been described in such a straight forward fashion.