Portugal plans to implement budget measures worth 1.4 billion euros ($1.94 billion) to narrow its budget deficit and meet a target set for 2015.
The measures represent about 0.8 percent of gross domestic product and include cutting costs at government ministries and reducing the number of public sector workers through retirement and agreements to end employment contracts, Finance Minister Maria Luis Albuquerque said in Lisbon today.
The government will continue to charge an extraordinary contribution on energy companies in 2015.
Portugal emerged from its longest recession in at least 25 years in the second quarter of 2013 and Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho is trying to regain full access to debt markets with the end of the country’s 78 billion-euro bailout approaching on May 17.
Coelho is cutting spending to meet goals set in the European Union-led aid plan after relying mostly on tax increases in 2013.
The government targets a budget deficit of 4 percent of GDP in 2014 and forecasts the shortfall will drop below the EU’s 3 percent limit in 2015, when it aims for a 2.5 percent gap.
Portugal on Feb. 28 said the economy will grow 1.2 percent in 2014 after contracting 1.4 percent last year, while the jobless rate will decline to 15.7 percent this year from 16.3 percent in 2013.
Albuquerque today reaffirmed a forecast for GDP to grow 1.5 percent next year and lowered the 2015 unemployment forecast to 14.8 percent. The final quarterly review of Portugal’s financial aid program will start on April 22, the minister said.
bloomberg.com
The measures represent about 0.8 percent of gross domestic product and include cutting costs at government ministries and reducing the number of public sector workers through retirement and agreements to end employment contracts, Finance Minister Maria Luis Albuquerque said in Lisbon today.
The government will continue to charge an extraordinary contribution on energy companies in 2015.
Portugal emerged from its longest recession in at least 25 years in the second quarter of 2013 and Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho is trying to regain full access to debt markets with the end of the country’s 78 billion-euro bailout approaching on May 17.
Coelho is cutting spending to meet goals set in the European Union-led aid plan after relying mostly on tax increases in 2013.
The government targets a budget deficit of 4 percent of GDP in 2014 and forecasts the shortfall will drop below the EU’s 3 percent limit in 2015, when it aims for a 2.5 percent gap.
Portugal on Feb. 28 said the economy will grow 1.2 percent in 2014 after contracting 1.4 percent last year, while the jobless rate will decline to 15.7 percent this year from 16.3 percent in 2013.
Albuquerque today reaffirmed a forecast for GDP to grow 1.5 percent next year and lowered the 2015 unemployment forecast to 14.8 percent. The final quarterly review of Portugal’s financial aid program will start on April 22, the minister said.
bloomberg.com
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