Eurogroup members warned today that Portugal may not meet its 2015 deficit target, but Finance Minister, Maria Luís Albuquerque told the financial experts not to fret so.
Albuquerque reaffirmed that she believes no additional fiscal measures will be needed this year to ensure the budgeted deficit is achieved, despite the obvious doubts of the other Eurogroup members.
The Eurozone Finance Ministers met in Brussels today and listened to Portugal’s Minister assure them that the Portuguese Government will achieve a deficit below 3% of GDP this year, all due to the measures provided for in the 2015 State Budget such as record-breaking tax revenues and the avoidance of paying unemployment benefits to many more of the country's unemployed.
Albuquerque did say that the Government will remain vigilant and that it will reset the strategic budget if necessary, but this won't of course be necessary, (until after the election anway.)
The Eurogroup members were not convinced and warned that Portugal may have to implement further measures to achieve its deficit commitment for the year, a goal that is "still within reach" but is hardly a dead cert.
Europe's Finance Ministers today were looking at the progress made by the seven member states that had been identified in December 2014 as being "at risk of failure," this included Portugal.
Using the unwritten sub-text of a weary Headmaster's half-term report, the Eurogroup noted that Portugal "is making some progress with structural reforms," but the projections do not point to a "timely correction of the excessive deficit by 2015, although this goal is still within reach."
Albuquerque may or not believe her own utterances but for her to say anything different at this stage would further destabilise the Passos Coelho government which, in the build up to this year’s election, already has been shaken by revelations of the Prime Minister’s inability to make full and timely social security and tax payments.
