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Economist Ricardo Arroja complained today that the Portuguese state puts “money into zombie companies, with zombie jobs”, in a criticism of the measures of the government of António Costa which, in times of pandemic, has distributed support to Portuguese companies in an uncritical way and ending up helping companies that are no longer sustainable. “It is normal for money to be lacking in other sectors,” the expert reflected this morning during the conference of the Order of Economists at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
The economist’s disapproval also concerned the recent injection of money into TAP, carried out by the Executive to support the air carrier out of the hole created by the pandemic and mismanagement. “When 1200 or 1700 million euros are put into TAP, it is natural that there is no money for health”.
Despite the strengthening carried out through the Supplementary Budget of 2020 and the funds entered in the proposed State Budget for 2021, Ricardo Arroja believes that health remains underfunded. “We have 12% [da despesa pública] for health, but the EU average is 15%. In Germany, health expenditure represents 20% of the total “.
Budget by objectives
Even so, the economist believes that “there has been a significant increase in public spending”, but this increase has not been accompanied by greater demand in the way this investment is valued. “We don’t have a budget for the goals yet,” he noted, echoing the words of the Minister of Planning.
“There is an OECD report, and only Portugal and Greece have no budget by objectives, and without this budget by objectives we cannot assess the quality of public spending.”
Consequently, he noted, it cannot be seen that public investments made in recent years are mainly “recurring expenses”. Something that is possible only because “then there are European investments. At the moment, Portugal, without European funds, has a budget essentially consumed by recurring expenses”. He added that “a large part of the structural investments are directed towards education and higher education, once again, because the European Union makes the money available to us”.
Dependence on the ECB and the EU
Along the same lines, Cristina Caslinho, president of the IGCP, warns that the public debt has grown by about 20 billion euros in two years and that this has only been possible thanks to the European Central Bank.
“This increase in the state’s borrowing requirement was really easily absorbed by the market, because the ECB had the decision made in March. In March, before the ECB supported the European debt market, interest rates rose significantly . In fact, having the ECB buy 80% of the gross financing issues of European states is absolutely essential support. “
(News updated at 13:34)
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