In growth but also in reducing public debt: IMF is more optimistic than the Government
The level of Portuguese debt should fall from 99.1% in 2023 to 94.4% in 2024 and 76.2% in 2029, according to projections by the Fiscal Monitor of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released this Wednesday by the team led by Vítor Gaspar, the former Portuguese Minister of Finance from the initial period of the troika rescue.
The projection is more optimistic regarding the effort to reduce Brazilian public debt than the forecasts presented this month in Brussels by current Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento. In the National Medium-Term Structural Budget Plan, Sarmento points to a downward trend from 99.1% in 2023 to 95.9% in 2024 and 80% in five years.
It is worth remembering that the IMF was also more optimistic than the government in growth forecasts for the Portuguese economy in the short term and medium term. Between 2024 and 2029, the Fund’s economists point to an average annual growth of close to 2%, while Miranda Sarmento projects a more modest average of 1.7%.
