Finance Minister Fernando Medina said this Monday in Brussels that the government has “commitments” to pensioners for next year that “will be fulfilled”, but reserved more details for the presentation of the state budget for 2023.
Speaking before entering a meeting of eurozone (Eurogroup) finance ministers, Medina asked how the government intends to deal with this increase in pensions without compromising the sustainability of public accounts, said that it is not yet the time to pronounce , reaffirming only the intention of the executive branch to implement such an increase, given the evolution of inflation and gross domestic product (GDP) in the current year.
“I will not comment on the positions regarding the State Budget for 2023 – this or that – now, I will comment on them in due time. to an amount that is a placed amount that has different characteristics,” he began with a reply.
Medina explained that “in fact, there is a part of this amount that is the sum of a normal nature, a regular nature, in line with normal inflation and normal GDP growth”, but there is also “a size that is, in fact, an extraordinary measurement that has occurred during 2022 was that the two indicators taking into account this dimension adopted values that are values that are outside the standard values.
“And that is why there is this commitment in value, this commitment will be fulfilled, and everything else, as in all other dimensions of national policy, we will present in detail when presenting the budget for 2023,” he concluded.
On June 20, Prime Minister António Costa assured that the government would abide by the law and there would be a “historic increase” in the value of pensions in 2023 as a result of soaring inflation and strong economic growth. registered this year. year.
Speaking at the CNN Portugal conference, the head of government said that, given the sharp increase in inflation, combined with strong economic growth in 2022, next year “an increase in pensions will be historic.”
On the same day, a little later, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, predicted that pensions could rise by more than 10% next year, and in the budget for 2023 they will amount to about two billion euros.
On the sidelines of the final meeting of the “Ten Years of the Council of Public Finance” conference at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, after inquiring about the Prime Minister’s statements, admitted that when the formula for the renewal of pensions provided for by law, “there will be an adjustment of pensions and pensions that were previously did not have”.
“It will be more than 10%, it is tantamount to having one more month of pensions and retirements,” he said.
However, Marcelo Rebelo de Souza warned that economic forecasts for 2023 indicate that this will only be a transitory effect.
“If we look at the foreseeable evolution for 2023, in which growth is falling and in which inflation is expected to fall, then the opposite is true (…) We are talking about 2023, through the application of a law that already exists, there is a historical increase in reforms, this maybe more than two billion euros, but that doesn’t mean it will stay forever, it depends on the evolution in the coming years of growth and inflation,” he warned.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
