ANTICH SAYS ECONOMY IS DOING “BRILLIANTLY”

By Humphrey Carter THE Balearic government leapt to the defence of its economic policies and track record yesterday, claiming that the Balearic economy has performed “brilliantly” over the past four years. Over the past few weeks, the local government's economic, tourism and construction policies have been singled out for attack by the conservative Partido Popular political big guns hoping to return Balearic candidate Jaume Matas to power. But, just 24 hours after it was revealed that the Balearics has the worst unemployment record this year, local government leader Francesc Antich and his Minister for Finance, Joan Mesquida went on the offensive. They both skipped through the unemployment figures by producing population growth data, claiming that while the jobless figure appears up, it is really down, accusing the PP of trying to discredit the government's economic policies “while the Balearic economy is actually performing very well,” said Antich. But since 2000, Gross National Product in the Balearics has shrunk from 4.1 per cent to just 0.8 per cent, but Antich blamed the global economic slowdown, recession in Germany and the Iraq War while claiming that, despite all the exterior forces, the Balearic economy has continued to grow “which shows it can withstand global uncertainty.” Mesquida said that instead of looking at the past three months, during which nearly 16.000 lost their jobs in the Balearics, the electorate ought to look at how the left wing coalition government has performed over the past four years. With regards to the immediate future, apart from the May 25 local elections, Mesquida said that the “unpopular” reforms to the welfare state in Germany will have a further negative effect on the Balearics if they are introduced. “Last year 38.000 companies went bankrupt and unemployment is riding at ten per cent in Germany which is alarming,” but he claims that in the mid-term Germany will recover and the Balearics will benefit.