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Employers say Moody’s downgrade ‘an eye opener’
“Moody’s is telling us we need to be more strategic in the way we manage our finances” – MEA
8 September 2011, 12:00am
Matthew Vella
Matthew Vella
1 min read
The Malta Employers’ Association has called attention to Malta’s downgraded credit rating over the island’s weak debt position and the cutting of its deficit using one-off measures.
“It’s an eye-opener to government to focus on reducing the deficit and to facilitate a more competitive economy,” the MEA said.
“Moody’s seem to be telling Malta that we need to be more strategic in the manner we manage finances. The downgrading has also been influenced by the poor performance and instability of many Eurozone economies, which have generally experienced lower than expected economic growth.”
Moody’s assessment also referred to a ‘contagion’ of the economic performance from the Eurozone. The MEA said one of the challenges facing the Maltese economy was to remain resilient even in face of a bleak global economic outlook. “Even if Malta’s debt as a percentage of GDP is 68% - lower than the 85% Euro area debt level – there is still the danger that the debt crisis in the euro area can spill over to our economy through secondary effects.
“Given the lack of fiscal manoeuvring, it will be difficult for government to use fiscal policy to stimulate the economy while reducing the deficit to a sustainable level. The best chance in reaching this goal is through economic growth by a productive and competitive public sector. This should be a primary objective in the upcoming national budget.”
Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...
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The problem with MEA is that they have not yet realized that if you pay the peanuts you get monkeys. A competitive economy is an economy where employees are given incentives to perform better and the only incentive for every employee to perform better is for him or her to have a decent salary which unfortunately is still not the case here on our shores.
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The MEA will always look at reducing wages first. Suggest they have a good look at how some business operate. A lot are downright inefficient or are operating with equipment well past its sell by date.
That's how you improve productivity. The germans pay themselves excellent wages and are still competitive on world markets.
Having been a manager in a multinational company abroad I can assure you I know what I am talking about.
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Time's up; the PN has not been able to create wealth; it simply borrowed monies to create a bubble, an artificial bubble based on debt simpllyt to buy votes and win elections. Even though most of the debt belongs to the Maltese, it still has to be paid back, unless of course, you are a PN apologists who thinks that if one borrows from a neighbour, or friend you don't have to pay it back!
