‘More people feeling part of middle class shows success of our economic policies’ – PM

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said in a short telephone interview yesterday that the fact that more people are feeling that they belong to the middle class shows that the government’s economic policies are succeeding.

Muscat noted that the past week was an important one, with a number of statistics and international studies being released.

He referred to positive news from another credit rating agency – DBRS – which confirmed Malta’s credit rating as being A (high) and stable, but said that what counts is what Maltese and Gozitan families feel.

Citing a recent Eurobarometer survey, Muscat said that 85% of families said that the economy is strong, something which is double the EU average and which is reflected in their standard of living.

He also made mention of the fact that 75% of families now consider themselves, according to the Eurobarometer survey, as part of the middle class – 16% more than last year, saying that when people feel like they belong to the middle class it shows that the government’s economic policies are succeeding.

Referring to recently published NSO statistics, Muscat said that it was confirmed that the rate of people at risk of poverty has declined again, with these results being proof that the measures that the government is taking to tackle poverty is working. He said that poverty is a reality that the government is fighting against through budget measures.

He said that since 2013 – when Labour was first elected to power – the government had taken an average of seven people out of poverty every day.

He added that the poverty rate today is the lowest since it started being recorded, and lamented that previous administrations used to deny that poverty even existed. “We acknowledged this reality, started tackling it, and are succeeding,” he said.

He also noted that the latest statistics do not reflect the effects of the last two budgets yet, as they pertain to 2017 and 2018 and hence do not account for the effect of current or recently implemented measures and initiatives.

Muscat said that he was sure that since 2018, the situation has continued to improve.