The Government’s “revenge” on Mário Centeno – who heard “words” from Paulo Núncio

Last year’s budget balance was 0.7% of GDP. Government predicted 0.3%. Centeno “enjoys early retirement in Florida”.

The National Statistics Institute this Thursday that the balance of the Public Administration sector was 2,058.6 million euros.

Representa 0,7% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), more than the 0.6% at the end of 2024 – and more than double the 0.3% predicted in the State Budget for this year, the Government’s official forecast.

In relation to the same period of the previous year, there was an increase of 7.8% in total revenue and 3.3% in total expenses.

The results of the 2025 national accounts are “absolutely historic”, the Minister of State and Finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento.

The minister highlighted that a surplus of 0.7% of GDP, of more than 2 billion euros, is the second largest surplus in a democracy, in Portugal.

Paulo Núncio, parliamentary leader of the CDS-PP, also addressed the issue and said that this result demonstrates “budgetary rigor” and “success of the policies carried out by this Government”.

And soon after he left messages, mainly to socialists: “It’s a result that surpasses all […] the most pessimistic predictions of the opposition and the PS”.

After the PS, some “mouths” about Mário Centeno: the result exceeds the predictions “of a governor of the Bank of Portugal, Mário Centeno, who is now enjoying an early retirement in Florida, but who was deeply mistaken in the predictions he made.”

Centeno had predicted a budget surplus of just 0,1% for 2025.

For Ana Sá Lopes, these numbers – and these words – were “revenge” from the Government on Mário Centeno. Although the commentator does not emphasize that, a year from now, the accounts will not be the same.

The PS has another perspective. António Mendonça Mendes, vice-president of the parliamentary group, that these numbers “completely disprove the Government, because it is a result based on a Social Security balance that was hiddenbased on an increase in the tax burden and based on a decrease in public investment”.

“The facts contradict the Government’s narrative. After all, the Social Security balance was hidden in more than a billion euros, as the Secretary General of the PS said in the discussion of the State Budget and the Government repeatedly denied”, pointed out the deputy.