Everybody has now had his shot at it - the 2020 Budget has now been commented about by just about everybody, from the prime minister (multiple times) to his Opposition counterpart (ditto) to the usual quick bytes by commentators when the minister was just recovering his breath, etc etc.

It is time for us to add our comment as well.

The Budget was in line with the Budgets of previous years, with an accent added here and there, such as more money for pensioners, etc. There was an increased insistence on environmental issues.

As such, the Budget, coming on top of a good record over the past months, did not need to diverge from the past strategies. And it did not.

But one must meanwhile consider the Budget in a wider context than just a government's exercise. We carry today on pg 4 the results of a study on the people at risk of poverty.  We report: "8,000 more people stood at risk of poverty and social exclusion in Malta than in 2008, according to figures released by Eurostat, the EU's statistical arm, last week.

"The figures show how in 2008 the number of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion had stood at 81,000, a figure that had shot up to 89,000 by the end of 2018 - representing a concerning increase of close to per cent for this increasingly marginalised section of society.

"But in terms of a percentage of the population, the rate decreased, from 20.1 per cent in 2008 to 19 per cent last year."

So in this minuscule economy that has attracted praise from all over the world, there are still people, all 89,000 of them, at the risk of poverty - some 19% of the population. The percentage would have been higher had not Malta meanwhile allowed so many people in and given out so many work permits.

We await the considered and pondered reactions by the constituted bodies who have fallen silent this past week and a half as they consult their members to have their say on the Budget.

But we also expect those who comment to be fair and objective. For instance, one of the issues which has served as a fake judgement on the Budget has regarded the high salary that the new CEO of Malta Enterprise is drawing, double the salary remuneration of the prime minister, we are told.

It is a pity however that the paper that made the allegation in the first place did not feel it needed to compare this present package to that which a previous CEO, who is family to a star reporter, and who made the very same journey from OPM to Malta Enterprise, obtained in Lawrence Gonzi's time. Comparisons are required for consistency's sake.

And we add that that CEO was not a bad one, at all and that he had outlined a plan for the regeneration of Malta's industry that has remained on the shelves all this time.

There are still many challenges facing the Maltese economy, and we will be speaking about them in the coming issues.