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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 NOVEMBER 2023 8 INTERVIEW Deconstructing Malta's GDP: Economist says it's time to shift from domestic demand to export growth IMAGINE a budgetary debate discuss- ing the impact of government expend- iture – is public spending leading to healthier populations? Greener com- munities? Smarter cities? JP Fabri, an economist and partner with Seed Con- sultancy, envisages the budget debate in this way. "The budgetary debate gets over- taken by the headline figures. The COLA? The national wage? That's good. The headline deficit? The headline debt? Good too, but let's have a deeper discussion," he tells me as we sit down for this interview. Last Monday, the finance minister laid out the economic programme for 2024. It is a budget that comes af- ter a pandemic, during a war between Ukraine and Russia, and at the start of a new conflict in the Middle East. To make good for inflationary pres- sures coming from abroad, the gov- ernment allocated €320 million to fuel and energy subsidies alone. "What I'd like to see from an eco- nomic point of view is a bigger effort on the conditionality. Aid or subsi- dies given on condition that we in- vest much more in renewables," Fab- ri explains. Despite the subsidies, inflation is still being felt, particularly in food prices. Fabri points out that Malta's 'smallness' makes it ripe for monop- olistic practices, or so-called cartels. "Over time, I believe there's going to be more consolidation of industry players whereby market power will be concentrated among fewer peo- ple." Away from inflationary pressures, social partners have been pushing for a discussion on a new economic vision. Indeed, Fabri says the budget is not the be all and end all of a gov- ernment's economic programme. "What I really believe is that we should have a discussion on the long- term vision. There have been, but I think we need, an articulated vision of where we see ourselves going." The budgetary debate? Economist JP Fabri says a deeper discussion is possible. He sits down with NICOLE MEILAK to dissect Budget 2024.