Costa reveals: the Deficit will not exceed 2,3% – Diário de Notícias – Lisbon

António Costa says that the deficit in 2016 will be “comfortably” below the limit set by the European Commission

This data has been advanced by António Costa in the Assembly of the Republic, at the beginning of his speech that opened the first debate two weeks of this year.

“With the numbers we already have, I can assure you today, in this Assembly [of the Republic], that the deficit in 2016 will not exceed 2.3%. That is, and as repeatedly said, the deficit was comfortably below the limit set by the European Commission.”, declared the leader of the executive.

at This point, António Costa took the opportunity to criticize the opposition and the current skeptical in relation to the strategy outlined by the Government over the past year.

“Against all the previews of doom, against all the predictions of the plans B, C or Z, Portugal has fulfilled its commitments, without having had recourse to amending budgets or additional measures,” said António Costa.

in A speech without any reference to the controversy surrounding the descent of the Unique Social tax (TSU) to employers to 1.25%, as compensation for the minimum wage increase to 557 euros this year, the prime minister accused him before the PSD and the CDS have wrong in your arithmetic, and wrong in politics, as in, “four years and eight amending budgets, nor for a time, fulfilled its objectives and had left the country far able to exit the excessive deficit procedure”.

“the Sin, when repeated for four years that there was no alternative, erred when assured that we would need a plan B, with more taxes and less income, that is, when I was asked that renunciássemos to the policy change and one proceeds to your policy. The that a deficit of not more than 2.3%, the evidence is summarized in a very simple way: The previous Government, cutting pensions, wages and social supports, and increasing taxes, failed all the goals of the deficit in all the years”, he attacked.

In contrast, according to the prime minister, the current Government, “returning pensions, wages and social supports, and reducing the tax burden, presents the lower deficits of democracy and deprives the country of the excessive deficit procedure”.

“After all, there was the same alternative. And an alternative with better results”, he said.

António Costa repeated after the former President of the Republic Jorge Sampaio with the idea that “there is more to life beyond the Budget” and advocated that the current executive has presented positive results in the economic field, particularly at the level of employment.

“The exports have reached new record high and private investment has increased. The best and most promising results are in the labour market, with employment growing above 2%, and unemployment at values not seen since 2009. The unemployment rate was in October – the last month for which we have definitive data -, 10.6%, when it was 12.4% a year before,” he defended.

Still according to the head of the Government, it registers itself in the country in net job creation with “more 86 thousand people employed than a year ago”.

“And this trend is recorded in all the groups the highest prevalence of unemployment. In the long-term unemployed, whose rate decreased one percentage point, or in youth unemployment where the rate decreased by 4.7 points percetuais”, you specified.

In the political sphere, António Costa said that, after 2016 have been turning, in 2017 will be continued in the identical way, “with a Budget that is once again betting on the improvement of income of families and of social protection, with the elimination of the surcharge on the personal income tax and the Extraordinary Contribution of Solidarity (CES), with the increase of the national minimum wage, the real increase of pensions, the update of the Social Support Index (IAS), the completion of the replacement wage in the Public Administration and the fight against child poverty with the strengthening of the family allowance for children up to three years.”

In his speech, the prime minister also said that this year will be “focus on public investment, which rose 20% from 2016, with highlights to the investment of proximity, in 200 primary and secondary schools, three new hospitals, the implementation of the plan for modernisation of security forces, priority to urban regeneration and investments envisaged in the Plan the Railroad 2020″.