Portuguese prime minister: “families can face everyday life with serenity”

  • ECO News
  • 17 November 2016

The Portuguese prime minister says Portugal can look confidently and without worries to the upcoming year.

The Portuguese prime minister has stated today that Portugal can face 2017 “confidently and without worries”, after Brussels decision of not presenting a proposal to suspend funds to Portugal and the fact the 2017 State Budget was approved by the EC.
“We cannot be anything but optimistic about 2017 because of what this represents in terms of trust in the Portuguese public finance”, stated the prime minister.

According to António Costa, “objectively, today the European Commission has recognized several things: in 2016 we had an effective action on the control of public finance and therefore we expect to be able to leave the excessive deficit procedure (EDP); secondly, the sanctions process has been cancelled; and concerning the 2017 State Budget, the incompliance risks are quite limited”.

According to the head of the government, “families can start to regard their day-to-day life with serenity, without worries of having to deal with cuts or with an increase in taxation. […] Portuguese companies can look confidently to financing conditions and the country can regard its relationship with the European institutions with trust and serenity”.

"The messages given out by the European Commission today give the Portuguese government a positive incentive in terms of motivation.”

António Costa, prime minister

The greatest guarantee that 2017 will turn out well is 2016. A year ago, the EC did not approve the Budget, which had to be altered when already in Parliament and additional measures were required, at the same time it was clearly stated that Portugal would not leave the excessive deficit procedure (EDP) and a sanctions process was to be applied to Portugal”, stresses the PM.

Now, however, according to Costa, “the fine was cancelled, today the threat of having the funds suspended is no longer present and the 2017 State Budget was approved and it was stated Portugal would leave the EDP. […] In fact, it was brought forward this Tuesday that Portugal’s strong economic growth in the third quarter of the year is better than what the EC had anticipated”.

Hence, the prime minister believes the country cannot be “anything but optimistic about 2017”.