Seminar addresses Malta’s economic competitiveness

Issues on the competitiveness of the Maltese Economy and policy implications emerging therefrom were discussed during a seminar for Bank of Valletta managers organised recently at the Bank’s Head Office. The presentation was delivered by Gordon Cordina, a senior economist who heads the Research Unit at the Central Bank of Malta. Mr Cordina is also a lecturer at the University of Malta.
Mr Cordina spoke about the importance of a sound analysis of the balance of payments in the context of Maltese economic development. He explained how the balance of payments situation reflects the competitiveness of the productive base of the economy, the adequacy of its saving and the attractiveness of the economy for investment. In the light of the deterioration of Malta’s Balance of Payments performance last year and in view of prevailing trends, Mr Cordina spoke about the structural measures
needed to induce the economy to produce a higher output at a lower cost.
These include the deregulation of markets, the restriction of monopolistic practices, the removal of price controls, linking wage growth to productivity, retraining of labour and the reform of the welfare system, among others. He assessed the implications for fiscal policy maintaining that it would be preferable for consolidation to be achieved through efficiency gains in expenditure and revenue collection.