THE ECONOMIST intelligence unit has said that Portugal would fail to meet the three per cent budget deficit limit laid down by the EU’s Development Growth and Stability Pact by 2008.
In a statement to news agency Lusa, a senior business and economic analyst and expert in the Portuguese economy Ania Thiemann said that given current indicators, it was unlikely that Portugal would be able to meet the three per cent spending ceiling of its gross national product (GNP), adding that only in 2009, would the government have any chance of reducing the government’s budget deficit to three per cent or less.
The analyst believes that the key to success in reducing budget deficit is the continued reform of the public administration. Thiemann admitted that reform was happening, but “very slowly, the government would have to put off achieving its objectives by at least a year”.
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