The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, considered on Friday that the possible forecast of economic growth of 1.5% in 2024 in Portugal “is cautious and does not involve taking risks”.
“1.5% is cautious. If so, make sure you don’t take risks,” the head of state told journalists at the end of the 18th meeting of the Arraiolos Group that took place today at a hotel in Porto.
The head of state admitted that he did not know the figures in detail, but only the general lines of the 2024 state budget that the government of António Costa presented to the parties on this day.
According to the specialized newspaper ECO, the government is drawing up the 2024 state budget (OE) based on a forecast of economic growth of 1.5% in 2024.
‘I’ve been closed [na reunião do Grupo de Arraiolos]Therefore, it would be foolish to say now that it is 1.5%, and not 1.5%. What I can say is that I received the Governor of the Bank of Portugal three days ago and what he said was that the international situation is still very undefined,” he explained.
And this uncertainty means that we must understand whether Europe will leave behind “the lack of growth it is now in” by the end of the year, said the President of the Republic, recalling that important European countries are not growing, namely Germany.
And he added: “If it starts to go away, it means it’s facilitating our growth, which dropped from the first quarter to the second quarter. If it doesn’t go away, it’s hampering our growth.”
Therefore, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa believed that the forecast for next year is “a careful calculation”.
“Because I mean it’s less than what we had, for example I’m not saying last year, but in the first quarter when we had 2% more, but it’s more than no growth at all, so it probably means the next we present a conservative calculation, waiting for the growth of Europe,” he said.
Source: DN
