Portuguese Communist Party criticizes optimistic deficit figures

Portugal's opposition Communist Party attacked the center-right government for the optimistic deficit figures released on Thursday, pointing out that the reduction in the deficit was a result of austerity.

The Portuguese National Institute of Statistics (INE) revealed on Thursday that Portugal's public deficit stood at 4.5 percent of GDP in 2014. However, Communist Party member of parliament (MP) Paulo Sa was unimpressed by the figures.

"Following a year of austerity measures, of impoverishment of the Portuguese, and the plunging of the national economy, the country registered a reduction of the deficit of just three decimal points," he said at parliament, adding that the figures had been achieved "at the expense" of the Portuguese.

Sa pointed out that there were cuts of more than 1.1 billion euros (about 1.2 billion U.S. dollars) in salaries, welfare payments, and public investment in 2014.

"These numbers by the INE reflect the political nature of the government: to take away from those who need to make a living, transferring wealth to bankers, speculators and bookmakers," he said.

Portugal's center-right government, led by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, has been implementing harsh austerity measures to achieve a deficit target of 2.7 percent in 2015, as agreed with the troika of international lenders - the European Commision, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank - under a 78-billion-euro bailout program the two sides signed in May 2011. The country had a clean exit from the program in May last year.

Although Portugal's economy is improving, with gross domestic product (GDP) expanding in the fourth quarter last year at the fastest rate in a year, the country is still struggling to reduce its public debt, which stands at around 125 percent of GDP. Endit