On Friday, the government will present to the parties with parliamentary representation the macroeconomic scenario that will serve as the basis for its proposal for a state budget for 2023, a diploma presented to the Assembly of the Republic on Monday.
At the meetings with the parties on the 2023 state budget, which will take place under the opposition statute, the government will be represented by the Deputy Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Ana Catarina Mendes, and by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Medina.
The first batch received by the government is the Livre, at 09:00, followed at 30-minute intervals, the PAN (9:30), the Bloco de Esquerda (10:00), the PCP (10: 00:30), Chega (11:00), the Liberal Initiative (11:30) and the PSD at 12:00.
On Wednesday, at the end of the Republic Day celebrations in Lisbon, Prime Minister António Costa spoke, without going into details, worldwide about the main macroeconomic lines of next year’s budget proposal.
In the presence of journalists, António Costa ruled out a “non-growth and even less recession” scenario for 2023, anticipating that the Portuguese economy “will continue to grow above the European average” and estimating that inflation will slow.
“This year we are the country in the European Union with the highest growth. Next year [haverá] recession in many European countries. We are not necessarily immune and therefore Portugal will grow less than this year, but we will not have a scenario of non-growth and even less of recession.” persistent costa.
According to the prime minister, the economic scenario for 2023, on which the state budget will be based, will be “moderate growth, adapted to the realities of the time”. “It is based on a significant slowdown in inflation, with a fundamental concern that is key to economic policy: preserving employment and supporting household income and the ability of companies to compete without fueling the inflation spiral.” he said.
António Costa also said that “the essence of the fiscal measures has been designed”, but the government hopes, until the closing of the budget proposal, on Monday, “to complete negotiations with the social partners so that the state budget for 2023 can already reflect what the medium-term agreement on competitiveness and profitability”.
“We are working with the partners in the field of social dialogue so that we can conclude a competition and income agreement – a multi-year agreement, as we presented it to the public administration, which should ensure that within the horizon of this legislature there is not only no loss of purchasing power as there is an improvement in purchasing power”m stated.
At this point, the Prime Minister reiterated that the government’s objective is to increase the share of wages in national wealth to 48%, which is the European average.
As for public administration, the government on Monday proposed wage increases of between 8% and 2% to unions, with a guarantee of at least about EUR 52 per year until 2026.
The minimum annual increase for the civil service corresponds to a change in the salary level (about 52 euros), ranging between 8% for the lowest pay in the table, which is 705 euros, and 2% for income from 2,570.82 euros.
“This means that, through this salary update mechanism, government salaries will increase by an average of 3.6% over the next year,” Presidency Minister Mariana Vieira da Silva told the agency. lusa.
In contrast to previous years, the government announced the pension increases for the coming year at the beginning of September.
Pensions up to EUR 886 increase by 4.43%. Those with a value between 886 and 2,659 euros will increase by 4.07%, while the rest (which would be updated taking into account the applicable legal formula) will increase by 3.53%.
Source: DN
