Costa estimates public investment to go up 40% in 2018

  • ECO News
  • 26 September 2018

The Prime Minister said this Wednesday that public investment is due to increase by 40%, as a result of a "healthy" budget consolidation policy, claiming Lisbon's public transports "are better now".

Portugal’s prime minister said on Wednesday that Portugal is on its way to seeing an increase in public investment of around 40% in 2018, an indicator he considered to be the result of a “healthy” budget consolidation policy that was started in 2016.

António Costa announced the public investment figure at a ceremony to launch the call for tenders opened by Metropolitano de Lisboa to renew its signalling system and to buy 14 new three-car trains, an investment worth about €127 million.

After saying that the Lisbon metro and the city’s bus company, Carris, “are better now”, the prime minister attributed this change to an inversion in the macroeconomic policy his government has followed.

António Costa said the government had followed a “healthy, sustained” budget consolidation, based on facts such as confidence, economic growth and greater job creation, which has enabled Portugal “to save €1.4 billion in the debt service that it had to pay”.

Source: Lusa