Malta may not have been as badly hit by the financial crisis as many of its fellow EU members but there is no denying that it is now feeling the chill winds of recession blowing in. Tonio Fenech, the country's minister of finance, economy and investment, is frank about the problem.
"The situation over the past few months has been one of damage limitation," he says. Malta's economy is forecast to have "no growth, or slightly negative growth, in 2009", and the unemployment rate has risen from 4.5% to 5.5% in the past year. "But we have not done as badly as others in the EU," adds Mr Fenech.