Economist and myUbuntu Co-Founder JP Fabri warned that Malta’s sustained economic growth over the years puts it as risk of falling into a state of complacency.
Speaking on the WhosWho Talks podcast, Mr Fabri said the general election campaign has been lacking proper debate about how Malta can best position itself in a rapidly changing world.
“It’s a problem in Malta that debate tends to forget the wider context,” he said. “It’s as though Malta operates in a vacuum when in reality, if there is a country that doesn’t operate in a vacuum it is a small open island economy like Malta.”
“What can happen, which could actually be a risk to Malta, is that our success could become our Achilles’ heel. We have been blessed with very good economic performances over the past few years, the economy has proved to be resilient through crisis after crisis, but we risk taking it for granted.”
“You shouldn’t take resilience for granted, and in today’s fragmented world we also need to talk about readiness.”
While the Government has subsidised electricity and fuel prices, Mr Fabri warned that energy market volatility triggered by the war in the Middle East could still harm the Maltese economy in terms of aviation fuel shortages.
“The UK recently lifted sanctions on Russian fuel, which should start lighting alarm bells that a crisis is coming – lifting sanctions after all that means there is a real sensitivity to potential shortages,” Mr Fabri said.
He pointed out that the jet fuel crisis has already forced the cancellation of a festival, Mighty Hoopla Malta, which attracted 3,500 tourists last year.
“We’re shooting proposals everywhere in this campaign but we need a structural discussion about how we can improve our readiness in a changing world.”
From wars and pandemics to economic problems and serious fractures in the North Atlantic Treaty, Mr Fabri warned there have been so many ruptures to the global order in recent years that the world is essentially in a state of “permacrisis.”
“As an economist, I am asking what we are doing structurally, beyond all the freebies and bonuses, to really improve Malta’s way of doing things, to create new economic niches and to boost productivity?”
“There are a lot of assumptions that we will be able to sustain this growth indefinitely. We managed to sustain growth and reduce the deficit, and Malta’s economic story is extremely strong, but the worst thing that could happen to us would be for us to take it as a given and for complacency to start settling in.”
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