Public finances should be an asset to the country, not a problem, the finance minister said this Thursday, ensuring that he would rather be criticized for not widening the deficit than risk not having “the right accounts.”
Finance Minister Fernando Medina spoke today at a joint hearing before the Committee on European Affairs and the Committee on Budget and Finance in Parliament, reiterating the need for the country to follow the path of “certain accounts”.
“Public finances should remain a property of the country, not a problem,” he said.
The official advocated the need to “govern wisely”, that is, in his words, “to maintain what we can”, but “never do something in which we are not sure that we can continue tomorrow.”
“I naturally prefer to be criticized for not increasing the deficit more than I can legally do because I’m just worried about the coming year. The coming year will be a year with lower growth than this year. […] we cannot be in a situation where the state is a problem, public finances are a problem, and not the property of the country, as it is today,” he stressed.
For Medina, “the right accounts are important in all situations.”
“Only a person with great myopia fails to understand that correct accounts, in the context of the uncertainty we face, are an absolutely necessary asset to avoid the big problems that a country without definite accounts can currently have,” he added.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
