Portugal could double income in a decade

Former banker António Horta Osório says that Portugal could “double its income” in 10 years if it managed to set aside party political differences and define a broad consensus.

The former head of Lloyds Banking Group gave his opinion at a discussion to mark the 158th anniversary of the newspaper Diário de Notícias.
“To boost growth, investment needs to be stepped up in research and development. I think that public support funding should be channelled to innovation and this should be the priority”, said the non-executive board member on companies such as Bial, Impresa and the Grupo Mello.
Horta Osório also affirmed that Portugal must continue to focus on exports and called for less involvement of the State in the economy.
“I believe that the private sector and people will have more money in their pockets and in the long run this is what generates more wealth”, he said.
The former Credit Suisse banker also warned of a “difficult 2023 because of inflation” which is a hidden cost for people which immediately caused asymmetries”.
“There are moments of luck and back luck, but what is important is to be resilient and prudent to withstand the more negative times”, he said.
Believing that the European Central Bank should show prudence regarding increasing interest rates, he argued that Portugal’s public debt should be below that of France.
“Debt as a measure of GDP is around 115% (in France) andI think that we could get it down to below the French ratio in 2023 or 2024. If we do that we’ll be in another league”, he said.