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Portuguese president enacts state budget for 2016

Xinhua, March 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

Portugal's center-right president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who took office earlier this month, enacted Prime Minister Antonio Costa's state budget for 2016 on Monday, four months after the Socialist lParty leader was sworn in.

"The solution we have reached is one of compromise," Rebelo de Sousa said in a speech broadcast to the nation at the Belem presidential palace. "It is in this framework of compromise that I decided to enact the budget."

Rebelo de Sousa also called for the government to comply rigorously with budget implementation.

"It is that rigor which will enable us to cope with an economic development that is less positive or with problems in terms of realistic expenses and income," he said.

The Portuguese president also highlighted the need for the "Portuguese to know what they count on" and said he had found no reasons to ask for the constitutional court to verify the budget's compliance.

"This budget corresponds to the convergence of two wills: that of the majority of the Assembly of the Republic and the will of European institutions which did not oppose and accepted the state budget," he added.

The state budget was approved by parliament earlier this month and aims to roll back on austerity after several years of tax hikes and spending cuts.

It was approved in a final vote on March 16 by the ruling Socialists, Communists and Green Party, while the Conservative Socialist Democratic Party and CDS-PP voted against.

Measures include restoring public workers' pay while raising indirect taxes on products like alcohol and cigarettes, and restoring four public holidays.

The Portuguese government has insisted additional measures won't be needed.

Rebelo de Sousa is facing a sticky political environment, as Portugal has faced mounting pressure by the European Commission.

Rebelo de Sousa admitted on Monday that the economic forecasts in the budget carried great uncertainty, while adding that the "next period must be of political, economic, financial and social stability."

The country's state budget for 2016 predicts the budget deficit will be cut to 2.2 percent of GDP after reaching 4.3 percent of GDP last year.

Growth will be 1.8 percent this year after 1.5 percent growth in 2014, according to the budget.

The debt-laden country signed a 78 billion euros (87.35 billion U.S. dollars) bailout in 2011 which it ended in 2014 with a clean exit. The country returned to growth in 2014 with an expansion of 0.9 percent.

The president, who has power to dissolve parliament next month if he deems necessary, has stressed to the ruling Socialist Party and its left allies that the country must comply with EU rules. Endit