Portugal “is one of EU countries with least reduction of deficit in 2022”

This is the ‘rub’ of all the criticism over the PS government’s State Budget (OE2022) ‘not going far enough’. It daren’t. Explains Jornal de Notícias today, the reduction of the deficit forecast by the government in its budgetary proposal (that is being hammered from almost every sector) is 4.3% of GDP this year, and 3.2% next. This makes it one of the lowest targets in the eurozone – only topped by Luxembourg. Even Malta and Greece, which both depend heavily on tourism, are envisaging reducing their deficits by more. The issue is that Portugal’s financial juggling already pushes ‘public accounts’ dangerously the wrong way – yet the government is being pressured to spend even more. PM Costa has warned all parties today to think very hard about what they are asking for.