The impact of the inflation crisis and the aggressive increase in interest rates will seriously dampen the pace of the Portuguese economy and job creation. According to the new budget proposal for 2024 (OE 2024), the Ministry of Finance estimates that real growth will reach 2.2% this year and 1.5% next year.
Employment is also weakening significantly. According to the new official document, net job creation in the Portuguese economy will slow down from 1.5% in 2022, to 1.1% this year and to 0.4% next year (so less than half).
Employment is a variable that must be monitored very carefully because it guarantees a good basis for collecting taxes and premiums, allowing the government to present budget surpluses (this year and next year).
If employment does not resist and unemployment begins to rise rapidly, long-term revenues will suffer and expenditures will tend to rise much more than the government now estimates, due to subsidies and other automatic stabilizers.
(being updated)
Source: DN
