sexta-feira, 27 de maio de 2011

A tal imagem que Sócrates quer preservar (os outros, não ele)

Controversy on how Portugal is meeting its budget deficit targets under a €78 billion ($110.1 billion) bailout deal is brewing after a parliamentary agency said that more than €200 million in first-quarter state spending cuts actually came from unpaid bills.

The unit's report comes at a time when Portugal is desperately seeking to guarantee to the European Union and the International Monetary Fund it can cut its budget deficit for the next three years, mostly by sharply cutting expenses.

With campaigning ahead of June 5 elections intensifying, the issue was quickly turned into a political matter, with opposition leader Pedro Passos Coelho accusing the government of misleading, and caretaker Prime Minister Jose Socrates saying the budget accounting is proper.

In the report, the parliament's nonpartisan technical budget support unit said a 3.6% cut in state spending in the first quarter of the year from a year ago was helped by €205.9 million in savings from debt accumulated for personnel, goods and services under some ministries. Not taking that into consideration, the spending cut was of 1.6%, the report said. The EU and the IMF have warned that Portugal must focus on quickly lowering its expenses, because revenue isn't likely to jump fast enough.

Fonte: The Wall Street Journal Europe

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