“What is happening relatively in our National Health Service is not a consequence of any economic conditioning that has been imposed,” Fernando Medina stressed in statements broadcast by television stations. “In reality, on the contrary”, the Minister of Finance has concluded, recalling the “important reinforcement” of 700 million euros for the SNS, included in the General State Budget for 2022.

The statements were made to the press in Luxembourg, in anticipation of the Ecofin meeting. Fernando Medina, Minister of Finance, was asked about the difficulties experienced in obstetrics and gynecology emergencies in several Portuguese hospitals. And he ruled out that this situation is the result of financial constraints.

“What is being considered today is a problem in this specific area of ​​scarcity of doctors working in the public area at a special moment of the situation, on weekends,” Fernando Medina considered. “It is a structural issue of staff shortage. Obstetrics has a small number of elderly professionals. it’s not shame [financeiro]”, he stressed again.

The finance ministers of the European bloc meet this Thursday in Luxembourg, the day after a meeting of the European Central Bank. On the economic issue, Fernando Medina recalled that “Europe is facing challenges that affect the Member States in different ways.”

On the possibility of economic revisions, Medina clarified that “the Government presents its forecasts as a general rule in each State Budget and then in each Stability Plan.” In this sense, “the Government will only present a new scenario at the time of the next General State Budgets, in October”. And Medina left the guarantee that the Executive is “doing everything in its power to compensate the most vulnerable to the impact of inflation.”

According to the latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics, the inflation rate in Portugal reached 8% in May. The Bank of Portugal revised its forecast for this year upwards, placing inflation at 5.9%, above the 4% estimated by the Government.

Portugal continues to bet “on the right accounts” and does not plan to return to 7% in public debt

Fernando Medina was also asked about the statements by the European Central Bank (ECB), which announced on Wednesday that it is “accelerating” the preparation of a new instrument against the rise in sovereign interest rates. Regarding the statements of Christine Lagarde, president of this central bank, Fernando Medina said that he hopes that “the reason why this mechanism exists, which is to avoid speculative movements on the sovereign debts of the different countries, will work”.

Medina added that the ECB sent an “important message, at an important time” and that he hopes that this instrument and other additional measures by the ECB will have the effect “of not allowing rates to start to diverge too much from each other, because in fact, it would compromise the effectiveness of the ECB’s policy”.

Asked if he saw the possibility of a scenario in which interest rates were above 7%, crossing a “red line”, the minister concluded that “these numbers are the numbers that interest rates had before the great change in Europe. monetary policy, in which Mario Draghi played”. Thus, “considering a return to these types is something that is not on the horizon and that not even the ECB would allow.” “It is beyond any horizon in terms of the evolution of our interest rates.”

Medina stressed that Portugal will continue with the work of reducing public debt and betting on the appropriate accounts. “Some did not understand the reason for this bet, but I think that today everyone understands that the credibility that Portugal has, has won and will win by giving very strong signals in debt reduction, which happened in 2021 and will happen in 2022. , and the deficit, are very important assets for us to lead at a time when rates are on track to rise.”