Portugal’s Socialist Government Rewarded With Lowest Budget Deficit In 45 Years!
In a swipe to austerity led governments across Europe and the world Portugal has reinvigorated its own economy by investing in the countries people and not by cutting all public funded institutions but by growing them.
Economists estimate that Portugal’s public sector budget deficit for 2018 ended up at around 0.6% of GDP, in line with the figure released in February by the country’s finance minister.
The National Statistics Institute (INE) is on Tuesday to issue the first official notification under the European Union’s excessive deficit procedures with the value of the 2018 deficit, which it is to send to the European Commission. According to economists questioned by Lusa, it is thought to be around 0.6% of GDP, in line with government’s own latest estimate.
“The deficit of 2018, reported in the ambit of the first notification … should come in line with the government’s most recent public statements, that is it should be between 0.4 and 0.6 per cent of GDP,” João Borges de Assunção, a professor at Lisbon’s Catholic University, told Lusa, adding that this outcome “is positive given the slowdown in economic growth in 2018.”
In the 2018 state budget, the government projected a deficit of 1.1% of GDP, then revised that down to 0.7% in its Stability Programme for 2018 to 2022, confirming that in the draft 2019 state budget.
But on 6 February Centeno told parliament that the 2018 budget deficit was in fact around 0.6% of GDP, so revising down the government’s last estimate.
