Much noise had been made and continues to be made about the rapid growth of ongoing government borrowing that unless it is quickly repaid, results in an increase in the national debt. It is proper that such an increase is highlighted and brought up for discussion. However when doing so, it is necessary to maintain a balanced perspective.

Any entity, not least the government of a country, needs to ensure that its borrowing is being done according to the prevailing rules that measure whether borrowing is being carried out prudently. In Europe (and beyond) the rules currently considered as valid for such an exercise are those of the euro zone. They place the limit of 60 percent of a country's gross domestic product as what should be the ceiling for a country's debt. Many European countries have exceeded this limit, some in a big way, and they happen to be among the larger ones.

Not Malta, which has a debt level that is well below 60 peer cent. Which means that what's being done, far from being out of this world, is quite reasonable. Those who criticise the government about the increase in the national debt should take this aspect into account... which is not always done. According to euro zone rules, Malta's national debt is running prudently.

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BONDS

Worries have surfaced recently about how debentures issued by private companies in past years are becoming problematic. Some interest payments due to bondholders or the capital repayments due when bonds mature seem to be getting stuck. Naturally when this happens, it arouses concern first of all among the people who have bought the bonds, and even more so when they realise that the security they have by way of cover for their invesrtments is frail. But those who are charged with the operation and regulation of the island's financial markets also worry.

An array of useful measures have been suggested for possible implementation in order to better protect the interests of investors in bonds. Still, not frequently mentioned is a fundamental defect of the Maltese financial market whichkeeps it so feeble. In the private sector, the offers to participate in the financing of companies comprise mainly bond issues not offers of shares in companies.

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POPULAR HERITAGE

In the past decades, government agencies and non-governmental organizations launched great initiatives to promote a wider recognition of the national heritage and to make it better known by citizens. These efforts always deserved full support. Still as was to be expected, initially the development focussed mostly on "sophisticated" cultural traditions and artisanal products. There was nothing really wrong with this - only, such an approach gave recognition only to the local way of life as lived by the island's elites.

Yet another cultural reality existed, which was also of great interest - that lived by the popular and working classes or strata. In later years, these too have been given their due recognition as contributors to the national heritage by getting the focus shifted to what they did and celebrated.