Nov 23 - Picardo Tells Chamber: GSD Cuts Will Lead To “Economic Stagnation”
GSLP Leader Fabian Picardo said the GSD has to “compare apples with apples” when it comes to calculating public debt, adding that this administration’s debt level will be £400million and not the £900million that the GSD has predicted.
Speaking at a Chamber of Commerce dinner last week, Mr Picardo accused the GSD of calculating debt in a different method today to how it was calculated four years ago.
Mr Picardo said the GSD was making this election about debt when in fact the levels of debt were higher under the GSD administration during their last term in office.
He added that the debt has gone down to 17% in net terms, and that Gibraltar is performing well largely due to the private sector.
Mr Picardo said: “The fantastic results of the Gibraltar economy are not down to me, or indeed to my ministers, they are down to everyone in this room, and all the other economic actors in Gibraltar who are doing the hard work that delivers the growth and the fabulous GDP that we have seen.”
He raised criticism of GSD’s Leader Daniel Feetham’s policy to cut public spending, and added: “If we cut £25 - £50million out of public spending every year for the next four years, you know that what we are going to experience in Gibraltar is not growth, it’s stagnation.
“Stagnation at best, austerity, cutting costs, jobs, benefits and services has been tried in every country north of us and you have seen the effect of that has not been devastating just for employees, it’s been devastating for businesses too.”
Mr Picardo described the GSD manifesto as the “shortest suicide note in political history”, highlighting that there were key sectors that were left out of the manifesto including gaming, shipping and the port.
He said that the GSD should “mean what they say” when it comes to the LNG power facility, and rather than scaremongering the public, they should accept that what they have been saying is just a “cruel ruse”.
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