Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said that the leaked Moneyval report prejudices the process
He said that the whole process takes around two years, and due to the spotlight on Malta, this was the largest team sent to Malta.
Moneyval is a permanent monitoring body of the Council of Europe, which assesses compliance with the principal international standards to counter money laundering and the effectiveness of their implementation.
Finance Minister Edward Scicluna today presented the national reform programme for 2019 to the MCESD and the MEUSAC Core Group.
The process includes many drafts followed by a face to face procedure. In the past, he said, this always happened serenely, and that the rule of law means letting the process take its course. He said that someone leaked the document which was in the 8th phase, and said that there were still more 7 more phases to go before the final report. The leak occurred before factual errors are correcte, he said.
In the report which was leaked recently, Malta's anti-money laundering regime reportedly received a poor grade.
In the fairness of justice, he said, it should be published at the end of the procedure. This, he said, prejudiced the process. "What happened, happened, and we need to face the consequence. What they are we do not know."
Real GDP Growth is expected to stand at 6.2% in 2019, and 6 in 2020, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said today.
The inflation rate in 2019 is expected to stand at 1.9% in 2019, rising to 2.1% in 2020. Employment Growth will drop from 4.6% growth in 2019 to 4.3% in 2020, he said.
Scicluna spoke about the EU's s Country Specific Recommendations (CSRs). He said that Malta has implemented many such recommendations over the years, but highlighted that on occasion, Malta disagrees with them and does not. One such example was the recommendation to remove the COLA, he said, which Malta will not do. He said that it brings stability but admits it is not a perfect system.
He said that economic growth remains robust. The average for this government was, until last year, 7.1%, meaning that there were years below, and years above.
He spoke about Malta's economy being well diversified, and in terms of Gross Value Added (GVA), mentioned a few of the sectors and their percentage. Agriculture made up 1%, construction 4%, real estate 5 %, healthcare 6%, transport 6%, retail 10%, Igaming 15 %.
He said that this diversified economy is the shield against any potential future problems, should they arise. He also spoke of new sectors such as Blockchain coming in.
The minister also spoke about nominal growth, the GDP increased by €1bn in terms of economic activity over 2017. From this, there was a €332 million increase in terms of salaries and wage bills, a €525 million increase in profits and the net tax from indirect and excise tax increased by €150 million (this did not include income tax which is included in the aforementioned statistics.)
In terms of employment, the minister noted that in September 2012, 27% were employed in the public sector, reducing to 23% in 2018.
Turning to those at risk of poverty or social exclusion, the numbers reduced from 102,000 in 2013, down to 87,000 in 2017.
Turning to anti-money laundering measures, he said that it is not true that Malta did not implement the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive. He said that after the last general election, the transposition had to restart due to the electoral process, and that it was approved through Parliament that same year. The laws were sent to the Commission who then sent back their issues. Malta then clarified issues, he said, and 5 issues which remained were taken to Parliament and the situation clarified, Scicluna added.
With regards to the national assessment on money laundering, it began back in 2013 due to the situation in Cyprus, prior to the controversies which arose locally, he said. An update was then made in 2018. From the 2018 update, an action plan with 47 initiatives to address 47 weaknesses was issued. Of these, he said, 17 have been implemented thus far.
from The Malta Independent https://ift.tt/2FLlFab
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment