Portugal's former FinMin says gov't statistics "unrealistic"

Portuguese former Finance Minister Maria Luis Albuquerque said Tuesday that the government's growth statistics were "unrealistic," after the European Commission said the country would miss its deficit target this year.

"The European Commission has added to the number of national and international entities which had alerted to the same situation," the former finance minister said at parliament.

The European Commission on Tuesday revealed that it forecast Portugal's budgetary deficit this year would be 2.7 percent, above the 2.2 percent forecast by the government and included in the country's budget plan.

Luis Albuquerque said that economic indicators and a number of institutions with growth forecasts inferior to the government's showed that the government's forecasts were unrealistic.

Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa has insisted that he will abide by fiscal rules while rolling back austerity, by boosting growth and raising salaries.

The government forecasts in its budget that the economy will grow 1.8 percent this year after 1.5 percent growth last year.

Portugal's debt is still at 129 percent of GDP. The country had to undergo harsh austerity under a 78 billion euro bailout program it signed in 2011 but it exited the program after three years of austerity under previous government led by former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho. Endit