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THURSDAY 7 MAY 2020 • ISSUE 57
WWW.BUSINESSTODAY.COM.MT
MATTHEW VELLA
JOSEPH Muscat is back. is time
as an economic consultant brought
back into the heart of the Labour
government to map out a new way
out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a nine-page report compiled
by "the office of Dr Joseph Muscat",
the former prime minister gave
Cabinet ministers a note on the
possible evolution of the Maltese
economy in 2020 and 2021.
In it, the former Labour leader,
who resigned in the wake of the
Caruana Galizia assassination in-
vestigation and its implication of
his chief of staff Keith Schembri,
gave a wide range of scenarios: as
bad as a loss of 16.1% in gross val-
ue added in 2020, to as much as a
bumper 10% growth in 2021.
PAGE 3
PAGES 6 & 7
PAGE 2
INTERVIEW
Editorial PAGE 5
AN ECONOMIC NOTE, A GRIM REALITY, A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD
Muscat gives Cabinet
COVID-19 forecast
Holiday property
registrations
doubled in seven
years
Former PM drafted in effort to
map out bounce-back, forecasts
bad times for financial services
and tourism
GDP expected to contract by 5.75% in 2020
PAUL COCKS
AFTER several years in
surplus, Malta's general
government balance is ex-
pected to slip into deficit
and public debt to rise in
2020, as the government
takes fiscal measures to
offset the Covid-19 crisis.
e spring forecast issued
yesterday by the European
Commission's's Directorate
General for Economic and
Financial Affairs said it ex-
pects Malta's GDP to con-
tract by around 5¾% but
rebound by 6.0% in 2021.
PAGE 4
Malta Enterprise
sets eyes on what
is achievable, not
what can be lost
Joseph Muscat
