Assunção Cristas: Finance Minister Mário Centeno “never mentions debt”
Assunção Cristas criticized the low emphasis given to the Portuguese debt downward trend reversal. The CDS-PP leader is not impressed with the low deficit for 2016.
The leader of the Social Centre Party – People’s Party (CDS-PP) is not impressed with the deficit below 2.1% of GDP: Assunção Cristas believes “it is important to understand how we reached that deficit and know its underlying quality”.
This Thursday, during the fourth ECOtalks, Assunção Cristas criticized the cut in public investment made by the current Government, as well as the reversal of the downward trend in the Portuguese debt, which is “not decreasing as it should”. Assunção Cristas does not look kindly upon the increase in the sovereign debt interests, which is a generalized concern. The increase in interests, which have been surpassing the 4% threshold, an “extremely worrying sign”, states the leader of the CDS-PP.
Concerning the improvements in the labor market — the creation of 100 thousand job positions and the decrease of unemployment rates –, Assunção Cristas states: “Those improvements are likely linked to the labor reforms made by the previous Government [Social Democratic Party (PSD) coalition with the Social Centre Party – People’s Party (CDS-PP) from 2011 to 2015]”.
