Off the wire
• U.S. stocks edge down in morning trading  • Children used in British hard-hitting campaign to get parents to quit smoking  • LCD manufacturer to build factory in south China  • China-invested hydropower plant starts operation in Nepal  • Roundup: Italy serves as migrants' waterway to Europe  • JSE closes lower on Friday  • China to phase out commercial ivory processing, sales  • Uganda heads to training camp in Tunisia ahead of AFCON  • Survey shows nearly half of Poles negatively perceives adoption of euro  • Funeral of first Berlin attack victim held in Poland  
You are here: 　 Home

Portugal's Communist Party hopes for "long-term response" to external pressure

Xinhua, December 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

Portugal's Communist Party said on Friday that it hopes for a more "patriotic and left-wing" policy next year and a "long-term response" to external pressure regarding the country's debt.

"The option is to find a lasting solution and face the debt problem, enabling the country to free itself from the submission to the euro," Communist Party leader Jeronimo de Sousa said in a New Year message for 2017.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa took office in November.

The state budget for next year focuses on recovering personal income and raising pensions, while raising indirect taxes to compensate and meet fiscal agreements with Brussels.

Portugal's state budget for 2017 forecast economic growth of 1.5 percent and a budget deficit of 1.6 percent. It also forecast inflation of 1.5 percent and unemployment to decrease to 10.3 percent.

The country is constrained by a high public debt burden, which stands at around 130 percent, with rating agency Moody's forecasting only a very gradual decline in the upcoming years. Endit