“In the fourth legislature of a government that used culture as an electoral banner, the proposal for the state budget [for 2019] remains at the same level as the last decade: 0.25 percent of the state budget or around €250 million,” the trade union said in a statement.
The Socialist government expects the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to grow by 2.2 percent next year, the unemployment rate to hit 6.3 percent and public debt to drop to 118.5 percent of GDP, while promising civil servants higher pay and raising social benefits.
The draft budget also projects a budgetary deficit of 0.2 percent of GDP next year and 0.7 percent of GDP this year.
Other measures in next year’s budget proposal include reducing tuition fees in higher education, unfreezing civil servants’ career progression, raising public pensions and slashing income tax for emigrants returning to Portugal by 50 percent.
Portugal has seen strong recovery since the 2011-2014 financial crisis and the ruling Socialist government rolling back austerity in the past three years, with the economy supported by foreign investment, tourism and rising exports.
According to the draft state budget proposal for 2019, the main entities overseen by the Ministry of Culture are to see their funding increase in 2019, to a total of €244.8 million, up from €216.7 million in 2018 – an increase of 12.9 percent.