Ao minuto: Paquistão pede a EUA que prolonguem prazo dado ao Irão por duas semanas. Trump fala em "discussões acaloradas"

[C.N.]

Eu sou optimista, talvez por natureza, e agora por treino.

Eu leio:

"Portugal’s budget deficit... 6.8 per cent of gross domestic product by early 2005, has been cut to 3.9 per cent..."

"...exports surged by more than 9 per cent, against 1 per cent in 2005."

"In the public sector, the minimum retirement age has been lifted from 60 to 65, sick pay has been cut from 100 to 65 per cent and pay increases have been kept below inflation."

"The plan envisages cutting 75,000 civil service jobs by 2009, abolishing 133 government bodies and 44 public institutes..."

Abraco ainda com algum optimismo

CN

[Keyser Soze]

o post não está bem titulado, em vez de "artigo positivo sobre Portugal" devia ser "artigo positivo sobre Governação Sócrates", pq o artigo até é critico do estado a que isto chegou e das oportunidades perdidas

relativamente ás reservas do Ouro, tens que agradecer ao tipo que ganhou o concurso da RTP recentemente .....eh eh

[C.N.]

Obrigado por partilhares Keyser Soze,

E ja que estamos em periodo de boas noticias, gostaria de lembrar que Portugal esta a frente de muito boa gente no que toca a reservas fisicas de ouro. Hora vejam:

WORLD OFFICIAL GOLD HOLDINGS
Sep 2006, by Tonnes

1 United States 8,133.5
2 Germany 3,423.5
3 IMF 3,217.3
4 France 2,768.0
5 Italy 2,451.8
6 Switzerland 1,290.1
7 Japan 765.2
8 ECB 662.9
9 Netherlands 654.9
10 China 600.0
11 Spain 457.7
12 Taiwan 423.3
13 Portugal 402.5
14 Russia 385.5
15 India 357.7
16 Venezuela 357.1
17 United Kingdom 310.3
18 Austria 290.8
19 Lebanon 286.8
20 Belgium 227.7

Abraco cheio de optimismo!

CN

[Keyser Soze]

eheheh....coincidência, logo hoje que o Sócrates vai dar a conferência de imprensa

Portugal’s mood lifts as recession fades

By Peter Wise in Lisbon

Published: April 10 2007 18:43 | Last updated: April 10 2007 18:43

Few people could be more aware of how much the economic and political climate in Portugal has changed recently than José Manuel Barroso.

Having swapped the office of Portuguese prime minister for that of European Commission president three years ago, Mr Barroso soon found himself having to threaten Lisbon with sanctions for breaching economic rules governing the eurozone as the country’s budget deficit spiralled out of control and the government of his chosen successor collapsed within five months.

When he visits Lisbon in July, as Portugal takes over the European Union’s rotating presidency, he will find his country in a much brighter mood than when he left it under the shadow of recession.

In less than two years, Portugal’s budget deficit, which had soared to 6.8 per cent of gross domestic product by early 2005, has been cut to 3.9 per cent. It is expected to fall close to 3 per cent – the maximum allowed under eurozone rules – by the end of this year.

Economic growth has outstripped forecasts, reaching 1.3 per cent in 2006, up from 0.5 per cent the previous year, as exports surged by more than 9 per cent, against 1 per cent in 2005.

But while Mr Barroso may be tempted to congratulate José Sócrates, the Socialist prime minister who took office in March 2005, the view from Brussels is still not wholly rosy. Portuguese growth may have been stronger than expected last year but it still the lowest in the EU and less than half the bloc’s average.

GDP per capita has fallen steadily as a percentage of the EU average (corrected to eliminate differences in price levels) from 80.3 per cent in 2000 to 70.4 per cent last year. The Czech Republic, Greece, Malta and Slovenia all overtook Portugal during this period.

Comparisons with neighbouring Spain, which has enjoyed economic growth well above 3 per cent for all but one of the past 10 years, have fed into a vein of sardonic Portuguese humour about merging the countries.

In an analysis written for the European Commission in December, Orlando Abreu, an EU economist, said Portugal’s “missed opportunity” should be a warning to other countries joining the euro. Portugal lost the economic gains it made in the late 1990s, he said, “mainly through policy choices based on overly optimistic expectations”.

An economic surge caused by a sharp fall in interest rates when Portugal joined the euro was wrongly accompanied by an expansionist fiscal policy, leaving no room for adjustment when an economic downturn began in 2001. An important lesson for newcomers to the eurozone, said Mr Abreu, was that “structural reforms should not be delayed but rather speeded up”.

Mr Sócrates, who scored a resounding election victory over the centre-right Social Democrats, once led by Mr Barroso, is trying to heed that advice. Backed for the first time in the Socialist party’s history by an overall majority in parliament, he has pressed ahead with spending cuts, tax increases and reforms, producing the biggest cut in primary public spending – which excludes interest payments – for 30 years.

Value added tax has been raised from 19 per cent to 21 per cent. In the public sector, the minimum retirement age has been lifted from 60 to 65, sick pay has been cut from 100 to 65 per cent and pay increases have been kept below inflation.

His focus this year is on streamlining public administration, a long-awaited reform. The plan envisages cutting 75,000 civil service jobs by 2009, abolishing 133 government bodies and 44 public institutes and reducing senior staff by 25 per cent.

So far, Mr Sócrates has won praise from Joaquín Alumnia, EU monetary affairs commissioner. He has also gained political capital at home for his efforts to cut the deficit through structural reforms, rather than resorting to the one-off measures adopted by several previous governments.

But past failures to address badly needed reforms and the accumulated effect of years of political instability have taken their toll on the economy. Mr Sócrates was the fourth prime minister in four years in a country where, since the return of democracy in 1974, the average government has lasted two years.

Mr Sócrates’ cuts and reforms are strongly resisted by the public sector. The police, the armed forces, judges, doctors, nurses, teachers and public administration workers have all taken to the streets to protest over the past two years. A rise in the unemployment rate to 7.7 per cent is also causing concern.

Planned cuts in public administration are central to the government’s goal of bringing the deficit down to 3.3 per cent of GDP this year, ensuring that it will fall 3 per cent in 2008 to comply with a three-year plan agreed with the Commission and the requirements of the EU’s growth and stability pact, the economic rules that underpin the euro.

However, Standard & Poor’s, the international credit rating agency, said last month that Portugal was unlikely to comply with the pact until 2009, noting that implementation of the ambitious reform programme could be “less extensive than planned”.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/24a94f62-e784-1 ... 10621.html