On Saturday, the president of the republic believed that the state budget should be “elastic to allow for different scenarios” and pointed out that “it is necessary to readjust its application”, since “there are so many unknowns” regarding to the future.
“The state budget, everyone said, is a very flexible budget. The European Commission said that, the deputies said it in parliament, because it is a budget made on the basis of what is known today, it cannot be said with certainty predicted – certainty you never had – but with the greater probability how it will develop in the future,” he stressed.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke to journalists at the end of his participation in the Hippocratic oath ceremony in the southern region, in Lisbon, and believed that “external factors weigh heavily inside”, so that the state budget for next year “must have an elastic budget to allow multiple scenarios, a scenario that goes worse, a scenario that goes better”.
“The one who is doing worse is the one who eventually needs social help because the situation has become more complicated. A better scenario is the one in which the war ends faster, inflation falls, the economy grows again and so the intervention is no longer there.” as long or as deep as it would be in the worst case”to maintain.
Regarding the implementation of the state budget for 2023, the head of state believed that “all budgets must be very demanding from day to day, all the more so because there are so many unknowns, so many doubts, so many doubts, so many doubts that it is necessary is to adjust the application throughout the year”.
When asked if there is a high probability that the government will have to increase social support next year, the president of the republic defended that “in the worst case scenario yes, in the best case scenario no”.
And he claimed that “the worst case scenario is that the war lasts, continues throughout the year” and registers “a first half of the year still with the influence of the war, high prices and the difficult economic situation because it is not growing”.
“If this goes by quickly or faster and it’s three months instead of six, and it’s less intense and less serious, then the help should be less, but you have to be prepared for anything,” he warned.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stated that “what is happening with regard to 2023 is that the last quarter of this year is no longer comparable to the last quarter of 2021” and pointed out that the world will enter 2023 “with a war that did not exist, with an inflation that didn’t exist, without the momentum that was there from 2021 to 2022 and so that leaves some question marks.”
Anticipating that “the first semester will probably be quite difficult”, the head of state defended that “we have to keep hope, but we have to be realistic and the whole of Europe is realistic and the whole world is realistic”.
Asked to clarify what he said late in the morning when he defended next year will be “the first big test” of the government and warned that “as 2023 is, so is the rest of the legislature,” he said. the president indicated that he was “talking about an economic test which then has political consequences”.
“Obviously it’s totally different socially and politically to have a year 2023 where there’s a reversal in a positive direction with regard to war, inflation and growth, or not, or not until the end of the year, that means that in 2024 it is already more crippled than in the first hypothesis and 2025 is for recovery”, he pointed.
And he said he also referred to European funds, which “may be more or less applied this year and have more or less impact on economic growth”.
The state budget for 2023 was approved on Friday in a global final vote, with only the PS voting in favor and the only deputies from PAN and Livre abstaining.
Shortly after the approval in parliament, the prime minister stressed that this is “a state budget that meets the needs of the present and aims to support families and businesses in a very difficult moment” that the country is going through.
Source: DN
