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Lusa - Business News - Portugal: Public sector deficit in 2022 was 0.4% of GDP, well below target![]()
Lisbon,March.24,2023(Lusa)-Portugal's public sector budget deficit, on a national accounting basis,last year shrank to the equivalent of 0.4% of gross domestic product, less than the government's official target, from 2.9% in 2021, according to provisional figures released on Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). "The GG [General Government] sector revealed a net borrowing of 944 million euro, which corresponds to 0.4% of GDP (2.9% in 2021)," reads the release in English. "This negative balance was mainly driven by the Central Government subsector, but also by the Local and Regional Government, given that the Social Security Funds balance was positive." Revenue last year increased by €9.8 billion or 10.2%, it states, adding that current revenue increased by €10.6 billion or 11.3%, with the three main components of current revenue increasing at different paces, the most significant being current taxes on income and wealth, which was up 24.1%. The government had in its first draft of the 2023 budget projected a deficit of 1.9% of GDP, but the prime minister, António Costa, and the minister of finance, Fernando Medina, have already indicated that they believed it would now be less than 1.5%. Economists consulted by Lusa also expected last year's deficit outturn to be below the executive's official target. On Tuesday, the Public Finance Council (CFP), an official watchdog, also revised down its estimate of the 2022 deficit to 0.5% of GDP, from the 1.3% it had put forward in September last year. In the 'Excessive Deficit Procedure' report that relates to Portugal's status as a euro-zone member, released on Friday by the INE, the government maintains its estimate of the budget deficit for this year at 0.9%, as provided for in the 2023 state budget. It also maintains the forecast, for this year, of a debt-to-GDP ratio of 110.8% (against 113.9% at end-2022) - a forecast that may or may not be updated in the macroeconomic scenario of the Stability Programme that must be submitted to parliament by 15 April. The information that forms part of the Excessive Deficit Procedure report for 2022 and previous years is the responsibility of the INE as regards the compilation of net lending and net borrowing, and of the Bank of Portugal as regards gross debt, but for 2023 this is no longer the case, the INE report notes. "For the current year (2023), the estimates of net lending/net borrowing, gross debt and nominal GDP are the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance, based on the macroeconomic and budgetary scenario presented in the State Budget for 2023," it states. According to Friday's release, "total expenditure increased by 4.4% between 2021 and 2022 (+4.5 billion euro), with capital expenditure increasing by 15.0%, clearly above the increase in current expenditure (+3.5%). "The increase in current expenditure was mainly due to the 6.9% growth in social benefits, other than social transfers in kind and, to a lower extent, to the 3.5% growth in the compensation of employees," it continues. "In the opposite direction, there was a reduction of nearly 40% in the subsidies paid and of 9.4% in interest payments. Capital expenditure grew in 2022 due to increases in both gross capital formation (7.5%) and capital transfers paid (+30.5%)." PD/ARO // ARO. Lusa Agency : LUSA Date : 2023-03-25 12:17:00
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