LISBON: The European Commission (EC) on Tuesday improved its forecast for Portugal’s budget deficit in 2015, now saying it is going to be 3.1 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but still over the 3 percent defined by European rules and considerably higher than government forecasts.
In its spring economic outlook, published today, Brussels updated its estimates for the European Union (EU) economies, and in Portugal’s case it expects a budget deficit of 3.1 percent, lower than the 3.2 percent it had foreseen in February, but still four tenths of a percentage point above the Portuguese government’s forecast for this year of 2.7 percent.
The European Commission still does not seem to believe in the government’s commitment to get the budget deficit back down fewer than 3 percent of GDP and thus take Portugal out of the excessive deficit procedure this year. Brussels says this is only going to happen in 2016, when the deficit is expected to be 2.8 percent, in line with February’s forecast.
