José Sena Goulão / Lusa
The Minister of State and Finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento
The Government’s priority is the reconstruction of the country, after the storms of recent weeks – it is important not to forget the budget balance.
The Minister of Finance defended today that the The Government’s priority is the reconstruction of the countryfollowing the storms of recent weeks, for which there is still no total damage, insisting, however, on budgetary balance.
“We will realize the dimension of the economic and budgetary impacts in a few weeks and, due to this dimension, naturally the country has to make choices.”
“AND It is very important to maintain the balance of public accounts and the reduction of public debt, but also It is very important to help these people in emergencies and then in the reconstruction and recovery of economic activity”, said Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, in Brussels.
“When we built the budget for 2026, the path was already narrow because of the loans PRR [Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência]. The good results in 2025 and the fact that the budget balance was above what was forecast in the State Budget made the path a little less narrow”, but “the The path became much narrower again due to these storms and it is this balance between choices that has to be made at each moment depending on the information that exists”, added the government official, speaking upon arrival at the meeting of finance ministers of the euro zone (Eurogroup), in Brussels.
Earlier this month, new estimates indicated that the far below than previous accounts suggested.
The government’s full support could lead GDP to grow by R$3.2 billion this year, instead of the R$5.7 billion predicted.
The annual growth rate may increase to 1,3%. It is just over half of the previous forecast.
For now, and looking at other numbers, it is expected that these will occur in the coming weeks.
And this train of storms is in Portugal, for insurance companies.
