The finance minister again refused on Tuesday the existence of a ‘plan B’, between the optimism of criticism of the stability program and the left of the concerns that European rules mean a return to the past.
We want to give you our congratulations. Retains the state budget targets for 2016 in the stability program, which are currently optimistic and are completely discredited “ , began by criticizing the deputy PSD Duarte Pacheco.
the social Democratic deputy stressed that “the government does not say in the concrete as it is the most ambitious targets for the deficit [in the horizon of the stability program for 2016-2020] will be achieved. It is pure fiction. “
Duarte Pacheco also noted that the stability program” does not have the support of the majority “that supports the government in parliament, as the Secretary General of the PCP, Jerónimo de Sousa, he said today that the party he leads “does not support” the document, considering that contains European constraints that impede growth.
in this sense, Cecilia Meireles, the CDS-PP, recalled “the elephant standing in middle of the room, “stating that” can not see if there is someone else in addition to the Government and the Socialist Party, which is in accordance with this program. “
Without this parliamentary support can not compromise Portugal with these measures. I do not consider understandable PS’s decision not to take the Stability Programme to vote “ , said the Member of the CDS-PP party, which submitted a draft resolution to bring the document to the vote.
on the side of the PCP, deputy Paulo Sá rejected the “return to the past”, noting that the rules of the European Semester, which require the submission of the stability program to Brussels by the end of April, are just a “national sovereignty transfer mechanism for supranational institutions that have no democratic legitimacy”.
in response to communist deputy, Mario Centeno thanked the “availability of different opinions on the same matter” and said the Government considers it important to change a set of European policies, with the “ultimate goal” to grow the European Union.
Since the Member of the Left Bloc Mariana Mortágua expressed concern with the freezing of intermediate spending, which “is not necessarily good or bad, depends on the type of expense that I cut.”
the idea that the state is full of fat is fallacious and ideological and was created as an excuse to cut spending. When actually spending cuts if they cut wages and social support. Moreover is very little relevant in budgetary terms “ , he said.
On the possibility of a ‘plan B’, Mario Centeno took the opportunity to mention the budget execution the first quarter to aim the improvement of 5.5% of withholding taxes on personal income tax and increase “around 5%” of social contributions: “These figures show robust growth counterparts. And it is this behavior that can prevent Plan B, “he said.
The ‘Plan B’ if ever it were implemented, would follow the same standard budget of the State budget 2016 are very clear what the government’s priorities in this area. The greatest of all is to meet the budget and avoid additional measures that are not on our horizon “ , he said.
The Finance Minister also reiterated that the deficit budget without extraordinary measures was in 3.03% of GDP in 2015, thus responding to opposition MPs who countered that the deficit was finally in 2.8% of GDP.
last Thursday, the Eurostat confirmed that the budget deficit at the end of 2015 stood at 4.4% of gross domestic product (GDP), but in a background note on the state support to the bank that issued the same day, points to a 1.6 impact percentage points in the deficit “mainly due to the recapitalization done in the context of the Banif resolution operation.”
in this sense, as some media reported, the deficit would have been at 2.8% of GDP last year without these measures to support the banking, a number that was used today by opposition MPs during the debate in the committee of Budget, Finance and Administrative Modernization, to say that the previous government achieved a deficit below 3% of GDP . necessary to close the procedure for excessive deficit (EDP)
However, the finance minister ended by reiterating that the deficit without the impact of the resolution to Funchal bank would have been above that: “In the last information I have available, the National Statistics Institute (INE), the 2015 deficit was 3.03%, “said Mario Centeno, in response to Members.
After the commission, the office of the Ministry Finance added that the advanced number by the ruling excludes all extraordinary measures taken in 2015, before the Eurostat only counts in this note background, public support to banks.
Eurostat itself, the background note , notes that the presentation of budget deficits without extraordinary measures, in particular the banking sector, “only serves to improve the presentation of data to the users.”
This indicator [set] is not used for evaluation in the context of the procedure for excessive deficit “ , says the office of European statistics.
in the first notification procedure for excessive deficit, INE informed Brussels of a deficit of 4.4% of GDP in 2015, reflecting the Banif resolution record, which had a “negative impact on the sector of public administrations corresponding to 1.4% of GDP “, according to the INE, which means that, excluding the effect of Banif, the deficit would have been 3% of GDP last year.
the Minister of Finance refused the solution to the new Bank pass for more budgetary efforts, considering that the financial system has to be viewed with “caution” by the impact that can have on the economy.
it is clear that the financial system is the area of most open economy and more permeable to fluctuations, sometimes not very significant, but they have extreme impacts, and so it has to be viewed with caution “ said Mario Centeno, in the committee of Budget, Finance and Administrative Modernization, in response to Mrs concerns of the Left Bloc Mariana Mortágua.
to the minister, the stabilization of the financial system passes “the settlement of the New Bank”, stating that one can “act so that New Bank may have a stable shareholder structure”.
in this sense, Mario Centeno said that the financial efforts made by the State “already it was made “in 2014 and this time the goal of the Government is to recover it, so that” no longer exists any fiscal effort associated with the New Bank. “
the new bank was established in early August 2014, following the resolution of Banco Espírito Santo (BES), and is a bridge bank owned in full by the bank resolution fund.
After the BES collapse, the New Bank was capitalized with 4,900 million through the Bank Resolution Fund. The Portuguese State has filed 3,900 million in this fund and banks with the remaining 1,000 million.
This measure made the budget deficit in 2014 up to 7.2% of GDP, 2.7 percentage points up from 4.5% previously reported.
This bridge bank must be sold no later than August 2017, after the European Commission has extended for one year the date for its sale.
the institution had losses of 980.6 million euros in 2015, justifying more than half of this negative result even with the ‘legacy’ of BES.
Since the operating result (before tax , impairments and provisions) was positive at EUR 125 million in 2015.
No comments:
Post a Comment