NEWS | Wednesday, 23 January 2008

AD calls for the Central Bank of Malta to be given a greater public role

In a press conference held in front of the Central Bank in Valletta last Sunday, Alternattiva Demokratika (AD) called for a larger public role for the Central Bank in light of dubious information being given about the state of the economy from both government and opposition.
AD Deputy Chairperson Stephen Cachia said: “AD wishes, first of all, to congratulate the Central Bank on its role in Malta achieving a smooth transition to the Euro.
“The professionalism and independence of the Central Bank are crucial to the country’s good governance. It is primarily for this reason that we are proposing that the next government should give the Bank a more public role to act as an independent source of information on the state of the economy”.
AD spokesperson on the Economy Edward Fenech explained that another reason why AD is calling for the Central Bank to be given a more public role is that it believed that both government and the opposition were misleading the public on the true state of the economy by painting drastically opposing pictures for electoral purposes.
“Recently Eurostat has published GDP statistics for the third quarter of 2007 that unequivocally declare that the economy in this quarter grew at a miserable 0.1%, the lowest in the EU-27.
“Furthermore this poor performance was achieved during the summer months when the improvement in tourism should have impacted positively on overall economic growth.
“On the other hand the Prime Minister and Tonio Fenech are insisting that the economy throughout 2007 grew by 4%; a statement that is very dubious.
“We believe that the country is being misled and the truth may only surface after the election. If the country is heading for an economic slowdown then the public must be informed,” Fenech insisited.
AD is proposing that, on a monthly basis, the Central Bank governor should ‘testify’ in front of a parliamentary committee to give his independent opinion on the state of the economy; similarly to the way the Chairman of the Federal Reserve in the US testifies in front of Congress.
“This testimony should be open to the media and should also be televised so that the public can receive the chairman’s opinion. It is only in this manner that we believe the people can be properly informed about the economy. “Presently all the public is receiving is politically loaded spin from government and opposition. There is no doubt about the fact that the Central Bank is in a better position to explain the state of the economy than politicians,” Fenech concluded.