Pires de Lima, the former Minister of the Economy, said the new government’s bold tax cuts will make Portugal "unsustainable" and that the priorities of the new government puts Portugal at risk of generating external deficits.
The former minister is concerned about the priority to be given to private consumption, citing the Socialist Plan to re-inflate the domestic economy by leaving households with more of what they earn in disposable income.
"Competitiveness of companies is an almost forbidden word," says the former Minister of the Economy who warned that a preoccupation with increasing private consumption will herald the end of foreign investment.
"By prioritising private consumption, this will cause a substantial increase in our imports and we'll revert, unfortunately, to a country that creates external deficits and therefore is unsustainable," predicts the former Minister of the Economy.
Pires de Lima appears to be at odds with left wing principles as he lambasted the wierdo lefties as the bogeymen or the economy, claiming the current Socialist arrangement is;
"A government that is dependent on the extremist forces of the left, which distrusts capital, which has an innate distrust and criticises companies at every opportunity.”
Pires de Lima commented on the National Institute of Statistics data which shows growth in the Portuguese economy, albeit moderate:
"It's a moderate growth, but we are growing. That is the legacy of the previous government and it is very objective. The third quarter data gives an increase of 1.4%," says the former Minister of the Economy, patting himself on the back despite having resigned before the last Passos Coelho government was appointed, albeit for a short period.
Pires de Lima did not allude to the end of October unemployment rate of 12.4% and has long ago wiped all memory of his promises for investment in the Algarve, especially the port in Portmao which still awaits investment as ministers come and go, promising the earth but soon returning to their well-padded lives north of the mountains.
The new Socialist Minister of the Economy, now occupying Pires de Lima’s old office, said today that investment is a priority for the Government.
Manuel Caldeira Cabral (pictured) argues that "it is urgent to create more and better jobs" and says the economic recovery is "still fragile."
“Job creation, as well as the speed of economic growth, are fundamental, so a high priority of the new Ministry of Economy will be investment," said Cabral in his first public speech.
"We live in a time with many uncertainties and enormous challenges" both for Portugal and for Europe, so the new government will have "to deal with difficulties and internal and external constraints that limit the range of actions," said the confident 47-year-old Manuel Caldeira Cabral who among many qualifications has a doctorate from the Universtity of Nottingham.
