The president of the republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said on Tuesday that in the economic plan “the big numbers are fine”, but “the question is to reach people’s lives” this growth of the Portuguese economy.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke at the former royal arena, next to the Belém Palace, in Lisbon, about the European Commission’s economic forecasts released on Monday, according to which the Portuguese economy will grow by 2.4% in 2023.
According to the head of state the national economy “could achieve even more” than the European Commission predicts for this year.
“I think it can achieve more because if the first quarter, which is the most complicated, had 2.5% growth, tourism continues to rise, exports continue to rise, foreign investment is holding up well, and we are now going the maximum period for tourism, which is summer, there is no reason to expect that there will not be a result greater than that at the end of the year,” he argued.
That is what the President of the Republic has said “the deficit is under control” and that “unemployment figures are not worrying so far”.
“Therefore, the macroeconomics, the big numbers are fine, the demand is to get into people’s lives, and it takes time. Big numbers are one thing, it’s another to get into people’s lives” , he considered, referring to “it could come in multiple ways.”
For Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, “one path is the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), insofar as the PRR distributes more money on arrival on the ground in works and therefore in salaries, and therefore in purchases of materials”.
In his opinion, Portugal has “an implementation rate of the PRR that has improved, improved, passed on to 1800 and the like millions on the ground”, but “more than 5 billion” have been contracted, and “it is a matter of waiting” that in “get on the ground more” in the coming months.
On the other hand, the head of state pointed to “the extraordinary measures that the government has taken” and that are coming into force, such as increases in civil servant salaries and pensions.
“Let’s see if this also contributes to injecting money into families’ lives, so that families feel that they see the light at the end of the tunnel, that is, the good results that are reflected in the macro data. are reaching their micro-pocket.” ,” he added.
Source: DN
