Minister Albuquerque was speaking at a press conference following the cabinet’s approval of the Stability and Reform Plan with the minister terming the new forecast as ‘prudent’ with the 2016 growth forecast raised from 1.7 percent to 2 percent and 2.4 percent for the following two years.
The Portuguese state would also see its debt level remain above 100 percent of GDP through to the end of 2019 with that year due to turn in a budget surplus of 0.2 percent with the 2015 deficit due to come in at 2.7 percent before sliding over the following years to 1.8 percent, 1.1 percent and 0.6 percent before entering the black in 2019.
The debt forecast was itself subject to an upwards revision with the government, now well into its final year of office, expecting to close this year with debt equivalent to 124.2 percent of GDP, up from last October’s forecast of 123.7 percent.
The national debt burden is expected to enter into a declining curve sliding back to 107.6 percent by 2019.
There was also a better than previously established outlook for unemployment with Albuquerque proposing that 2015 would now see an average unemployment rate of 13.2 percent, down 0.2 percent on previous expectations.
Meanwhile, there is only a gradual improvement in the percentage of Portuguese citizens out of work with the government still predicting unemployment at the historically high rate of 11.1 percent in 2019.
The minister also dealt with the future outlook for a series of austerity related measures and, for example, stated that the Extraordinary Solidarity Contribution levied on pensions over €4,611 would be cut by half in 2016 and abolished in 2017.
In turn, the surcharge levied on personal income tax, currently standing at 3.5 percent, would be cut by 20 percent per year “for its integral removal to happen in 2018” with the state taking a annualised €190 million loss in taxation revenues as a result.
In turn, in the fortnightly debate, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said on Friday that such measures were still subject to debate and approval by parliament.
Pointing to the elections due later this year, the prime minister reached out to the opposition stating that given the end of this legislative cycle “it makes particular sense to listen to the opposition on these issues.”