Portuguese PM confident about economic

Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said on Monday the Portuguese economy would grow 1.5 percent in 2015 and the growth could be higher due to more favorable international economic prospects.

He also highlighted the need to keep a "long-term trajectory" on track.

"If we grow a few tenths more, even better, but the most important thing is the long-term trajectory," Passos Coelho said during a visit in Sines, a city in the southern district of Setubal, according to Portuguese Lusa News Agency.

He said the country had gone through an economic adjustment which carried a "high social cost" and pointed out that the country must continue to carry out such sacrifices.

Portugal signed a 78-billion-euro bailout program in May 2011 with the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank when it was on the verge of bankruptcy, and has had to apply tax hikes and spending cuts to meet its growth targets.

Passos Coelho said the country would meet its budgetary objectives and would reach a deficit below 3 per-cent this year.

The center-right government has dismissed higher forecasts, including forecasts from the European Commission, insisting that its strategy is helping put the economy back on track.

Portugal had a clean exit from the bailout program with its international lenders in May last year with its GDP expanding 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter. However its unemployment still remains staggering high, standing at 13.9 percent at the end of 2014. Endit