NO ONE would have called António Costa, Portugal’s Socialist prime minister, a fiscal hawk when he took office in November 2015. After finishing second to the centre-right Social Democrats in an inconclusive general election, he cobbled together a coalition with the far left, promising to “turn the page on austerity”. Conservatives dubbed his pact with radicals and communists the geringonça, a term for an improbable contraption. He pledged both to reverse the austerity measures attached to Portugal’s bail-out during the euro crisis and to meet stiff fiscal targets. Many called it voodoo economics.
Yet Mr Costa has kept his word. In 2016, according to official figures released on March 24th, his minority government cut the budget deficit by more than half to just under 2.1% of GDP (see chart), the lowest since Portugal’s transition to democracy in 1974. His administration restored state pensions, public-sector wages and working hours to...Continue reading
Souce: Europe http://ift.tt/2mQ5eTn
EmoticonEmoticon