The Minister of the Presidency designated this Tuesday as “the bay” for the discussion in the specialty of State Budgets the balance of public accounts and the surplus planned by the Government, warning that deficits “must be eradicated” in times of normality.
At the end of the press conference of the Council of Ministers, António Leitão Amaro was asked about the forecasts of the Public Finance Council (CFP), which considered the Government’s projections in the draft State Budget “plausible”, but estimates that the surplus will be The year is more favorable than expected by the executive, reach 0.6% of GDP.
“There are several institutions that do not predictions, which are different from each other. “What we must take into account when deciding the budget, in general and then in particular, is the scenario contained in the budget itself,” he said, referring to a projected surplus of 0.3%.
According to the minister, the Government hopes that “all parties with parliamentary seats will base themselves on this margin and respect it.” “I think that no Portuguese would understand that any party wanted to risk returning to budget imbalancesto deficits, and that we can eradicate that word from our habit of public accounts, at least in times of economic normality,” he stated.
For Minister Leitão Amaro, one of the conditions for the specialty phase will be to preserve “the budget balance and that slight surplus, which was set at 0.3 points.” “This is the guide that we must take into account, or the bay that must be taken into account”said.
Specifically regarding the CFP’s forecasts, the minister highlighted that this, like other entities, “endorses the Government’s numbers.” “This is the main conclusion of the evaluations of the Public Finance Council, is that the Government’s scenario is credible. And, therefore, to be credible, it is the Government’s number that we must take into account,” he defended.
Source: Observadora
