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Portuguese deficit in 2014 is very positive, encouraging: finance minister

Xinhua, March 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Portuguese Finance Minister Maria Luis Albuquerque on Thursday said that the news that country's 2014 budget deficit reaching 4.5 percent of gross domestic product was "very positive and encouraging."

"The figures that were published today for the 2014 deficit are better than what we were forecasting," Albuquerque said, adding that it "boosts confidence" that the target for this year is within reach.

The finance minister, who was speaking at the inauguration of the new Easyjet base at Porto airport in northern Portugal, said that citizens would "understand the need for the sacrifices that were made" over the past three years of harsh austerity measures implemented by the government.

Earlier on Thursday, the Portuguese National Institute of Statistics (INE) revealed that the country's public deficit stood at 4.5 percent of GDP in 2014, below the government's forecast of 4.8 percent in September last year.

Portugal exited its 78-billion-euro bailout program three years after it signed with the troika of its international lenders -- the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank in May last year.

The Portuguese government has been implementing harsh austerity measures to achieve its objective agreed with the troika under the bailout program, including spending cuts and tax hikes.

According to the commitments made by Portugal under the bailout program, the country's deficit last year should have been reduced to 4 percent of GDP. Endit