The President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa today praised the measures announced by the government to mitigate the effects of inflation, considering that they are «well taken, at the right time», covering «fundamental sectors».
«I, in the same way that I criticize what is to be criticized, I praise what is to be praised. And I already praised the Minister [of Finance] Medina a little while ago, because I think that [the measures] were well taken, at the right time”, declared the head of state to journalists, in a hotel in Santo Domingo.
According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the Government has acted now because it has realized «that it is not for the time being to drop inflation» and it has been proven that «there is slack» in the budget: «At the moment the conditions are met, and not much, much more was expected» .
Asked whether the measures announced today are sufficient, the President of the Republic replied: “Well, nobody knows that. I mean, that's what's possible for this moment. If they are enough, it depends on the evolution of the Budget in the future and it depends mainly on whether or not inflation breaks».
The head of state also welcomed the «good news regarding the deficit, 0,4%» in 2022, and reiterated that another «good news is yet to come from the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for this year» in the forecasts of the Bank of Portugal, of “close to 2%, 1,8%”.
Still on the Government's measures to mitigate inflation, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa referred that they «go to four fundamental sectors: food goods, reducing VAT on food goods to zero over a period of time, in the coming months; measures for agriculture, which was very sensitive'.
«Direct aid measures like those at the end of last year in families' pockets; and then a concern to complete this with an extraordinary increase in civil service salaries», he added.
The President of the Republic has been in the Dominican Republic since Wednesday night, where on Thursday he made an official one-day visit, before participating in the 28th Ibero-American Summit, between today and Saturday, together with the Prime Minister. minister, Antonio Costa.
Comments