The Pre-Budget Document presented this morning is evidence of a government that lacks vision and ideas to transform the economy, the Nationalist Party said in a statement.

It said that during his presentation, “despite being full of technical detail about the economic and financial situation of our country”, Minister Clyde Caruana failed to give any indication of whether he managed to convince the Labour Cabinet colleagues about the need of a new economic system that no longer depends on unrestrained importation of foreign workers.

“This is because while the Minister has repeatedly said that this is absolutely necessary (a new economic model), the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Economy kept insisting that the economy is doing well, and no change was needed,” said the PN.

“The Minister of Finance is being ignored by his own friends,” it noted, adding that, in the last days, in a demonstration of how determined the Government is to lead to a change in the way the economy works, Caruana “threw in the towel and said that the private sector should take over this change.”

The opposition said that the only concrete proposals that the minister talked about are ideas that the Nationalist Party and a number of constituted bodies have been insisting on: which are, the need for a new economic model, the importance of the fight against the increasing cost of living expense, as well as reducing the country’s debt.

Commenting on other proposals put forward in their pre-budget documents by many other representatives of civil society in recent weeks, the opposition is urging the government to take them into consideration.

The PN will also be resenting its pre-budget document in the coming days.