MADRID (Sputnik) — Portugal needs to coordinate its budget austerity plans with Brussels to meet the terms of the European Commission’s 2011-2014 bailout program.
The proposed budget will be publicly presented on Friday by Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno before it is submitted to the parliament for scrutiny, the local Publico newspaper said.
The outlet cited Pedro Nuno Santos, the secretary of state for parliamentary affairs, who expressed confidence that the draft budget would meet no opposition from the European Commission.
Brussels was to announce its verdict on Friday, following two days of technical negotiations with Portugal. The talks are set to continue tomorrow.
The Commission estimates that the level of Portugal’s public debt in 2016 will stay at a whopping 128.5 percent of national output, with gross domestic product expected to rise by 1.6 percent. The jobless rate is predicted to remain at 11.7 percent.
