Taxation

PORTUGAL PRESENTS ITS 2019 BUDGET

&amp;NewLine;<h1 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">PORTUGAL PRESENTS ITS 2019 BUDGET<&sol;h1>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Everyone in Europe has their eyes on Italy's budget&amp;comma; which seems unacceptable to the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;Europe&amp;period; But this week&amp;comma; much more discreetly&amp;comma; Portugal has made its 2019 budget public&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>In its draft 2019 budget&amp;comma; unveiled 48 hours ago&amp;comma; the Portuguese government plans to reduce its deficit to 0&amp;comma;2&amp;percnt; of gross domestic product&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;colon; a record for&amp;comma; hold on&amp;comma; 40 years &amp;excl;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>All this with a growth forecast maintained above 2&amp;percnt;&amp;period; Enough to make most European countries dream&amp;period; And this phenomenon is striking&amp;comma; for several reasons&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>First&amp;comma; it's a turnaround &amp;colon; let's look at where this country of 11 million people comes from&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>from 2011 to 2016&amp;comma; Portugal was in crisis &amp;excl; In 2011&amp;comma; everyone was already announcing that after Greece&amp;period; That Portugal was next on the list&amp;period; The country was on the verge of default&amp;comma; subject to a huge austerity cure and 3 years of recession&amp;period; All this with unemployment at 17&amp;percnt; &amp;excl;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>In a very short time&amp;comma; everything was reversed&amp;period; <strong>Unemployment is down to 7&amp;percnt;<&sol;strong>&amp;period; Forecast for next year &amp;colon; 6&amp;comma;3&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Growth is stable&amp;comma; Exports are back on track&amp;period; Automobiles&amp;comma; Real estate&amp;comma; Textiles&amp;comma; Tourism are driving the economy&amp;period; Foreign investment is up&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Debt remains Portugal's biggest problem <strong>3rd highest in the zone<&sol;strong> euro&amp;rpar;&amp;period; But the situation is improving &amp;colon; 130&amp;percnt; of GDP 4 years ago&amp;comma; 118 expected next year&amp;period; As a result&amp;comma; the rating agencies have removed Portugal from the category <strong>"speculative country<&sol;strong>&amp;period; Last Friday&amp;comma; Moody's even rated it in <strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;vivreauportugalconsulting&period;com&sol;le-portugal-vers-un-deficite-historiquement-bas-en-2019&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">"stable outlook<&sol;a><&sol;strong>&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>It's a spectacular turnaround&amp;period; Good economic news is too rare in Europe to pass up&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">A left-wing policy of recovery through consumption<&sol;h2>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>So what does the Portuguese government do to achieve such a result? <strong>For the past three years&amp;comma; Portugal has been doing everything Brussels hates&amp;period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Since 2015&amp;comma; the country has been run by a left-wing coalition &amp;colon; socialist government supported by the communists&amp;comma; ecologists and the local "left front"&amp;period; And not content with calling itself left-wing&amp;comma; it runs a left-wing policy&amp;comma; which has become an "anomaly" in Europe&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>In next year's budget&amp;comma; Portugal plans to increase civil service salaries by 3&amp;percnt; create 5 new hospitals and multiple health centers and improve social protection for families&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>In the space of three years, the current government has already &amp;colon;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>&amp;&amp;num;8211&amp;semi; &amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;Increased the minimum wage&amp;comma; every year&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;semi;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>&amp;&amp;num;8211&amp;semi; &amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;Improved small pensions&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;semi;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>&amp;&amp;num;8211&amp;semi; &amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;Stopped the privatizations demanded by Brussels&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;&amp;semi;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>&amp;&amp;num;8211&amp;semi; And reformed the labor code to limit fixed-term&amp;period contracts;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>He also plans to raise taxes on high-income earners&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p><strong>It is indeed a left-wing policy<&sol;strong>to stimulate demand and consumption, the antithesis of the austerity advocated by Brussels in recent years&amp;period; And it works&amp;excl;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">European discretion<&sol;h2>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>The Portuguese right doesn't dispute the good results&amp;period; But for them&amp;comma; these successes are the fruit of the years of austerity that preceded&amp;comma; this austerity that the right had imposed before 2015&amp;period; In short&amp;comma; the Socialists take the laurels to themselves &amp;period; While maintaining a right-wing policy on a key aspect &amp;colon; controlling public accounts&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>At the other end of the political spectrum&amp;comma; the government's Communist partners and the CGT feel that it doesn't go far enough&amp;period; and that small salaries need to be raised even higher&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>In fact&amp;comma; everyone is getting ready for the next elections, due to take place in Portugal in a year's time&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>But the most revealing aspect of all is Europe's discretion&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p><strong>Brussels is careful not to be too ostentatious in its praise of Portugal's results&amp;period;<&sol;strong> <&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>It is said that this recipe cannot be transposed elsewhere in the Union, because the cost of labor remains very low in Portugal&amp;comma; and because the country remains a land of emigration&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p><strong>This Brussels discretion is above all indicative of a form of embarrassment<&sol;strong> &amp;colon; the fact that Portugal is succeeding by doing just about the opposite of what the European Commission is asking&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;

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