Portugal’s financial situation “not comfortable” says CFP

 In News, Public Spending

The President of the Council for Public Finances, Nazaré da Costa Cabral has issued a warning that the state of Portugal’s public finances are “not comfortable”.

Referring specifically to Portugal’s public debt, the warning was made just a fortnight before the government will deliver the State Budget for 2022 to parliament.
“There is an issue that should not be forgotten and that is that our financial situation is not a comfortable one in terms of the public debt” she said, adding that in recent years the matter has been treated “with care” by the present government.
In an interview with Público, Nazaré da Costa Cabral also called for a debate to discuss a strategy for budgetary consolidation and stressed that national budgetary policy will get “ a free lunch” via the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) that would allow an increase in expenditure without having an immediate effect on the budget.
Portugal’s budget deficit stood €6.8Bn to August this year with an additional €550 million on the same period last year.
This was because expenses increased by 5.1% which was higher than had been initially forecast (4.7%).
Portugal’s accumulated public debt currently stands at around €274.6Bn. In 2020 it was 135.2% of GDP according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).
The pandemic cost the Portuguese State €5.139Bn because of an increase in expenditure (€4.6Bn) and a reduction in tax revenues (€481.6 million).