The building sector and the economy – Michael Stivala
An opinion piece by Lawrence Zammit entitled ‘Where is the profit?’ (July 15) sought to portray the building sector as an economically inconsequential part of the Maltese economy which restricts the contribution being generated in the industry to the confinements of private profits. Naturally, people are very much entitled to articulate their personal opinions, however, it is also the responsibility of the writer to ensure that the statistics supporting such assertions are robust and accurate. Unfortunately, basic numerical errors and the selective omission of standard industry indicators provided readers with a mischaracterisation of the industry that would be considered a disservice if gone unchallenged. The numerical errors present in the article will be elaborated first. The most immediate mistake is that GDP for the year 2021 is off the mark. In fact, the real figure should be €14,684,769,000 according to NSO’s latest press release published on May 30, which is €1 billion more than the figure presented in the article. In turn, this means that the analysis concerning trends in employee compensation is also erroneous. The actual figure for total employee compensation as a...