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Portuguese parliament approves draft state budget for 2016

Xinhua, February 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Portuguese parliament approved the draft state budget for 2016 on Tuesday after a two-day debate with the leftist parties voting in favor.

The budget was approved with the Portuguese Comminust Party, the Left Bloc and the Green Party voting in favor and the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) and CDS-PP against.

The state budget predicts a deficit of 2.2 percent of the GDP and an economic growth of 1.8 percent in 2016.

To achieve these goals, Portugal will focus on indirect taxes, creating an extraordinary tax for the banking sector and raising the taxes on automobiles, fuel and tobacco.

The European Commission has given a green light on the draft budget before the government unveiled the details of the budget on Feb. 5.

Portugal's economy has been on track of slow growth with the unemployment rate dropping steadily in the past few years.

The PS took power in November last year after ousting the previous PSD-CDs PP coalition government in the Oct. 4 general elections which they won but lost the majority in the 230-seat parliament.

"The budget is bad and it is a poisoned gift for the Portuguese. It leaves the country more vulnerable to external crises," PSD president and former prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho said before the parliamentary voting.

Analysts said that the budget is easy to be approved but difficult to apply. Endit