‘Portugal more credible but debt still shatters records’

Two years into his mandate, Diário de Notícias compares the prime minister’s promises and results and argues that the right-wing coalition’s dreams are mostly unfulfilled.
In 2014, Pedro Passos Coelho (of the center-right PSD) promised 2.5 per cent growth, unemployment curbed to 12.6 per cent, a 1.8 per cent deficit and a debt to GDP ratio of 105 per cent. In fact the figures for next year are: 0.6 per cent growth at best, unemployment at 18.5 per cent, a 4 per cent deficit, and debt-to-GDP ratio 123.7 per cent.
The government has “failed to meet every forecast, although Portugal has regained ‘credibility’ with the markets,” notes the Lisbon daily. Now it must try to convince its European partners to allow for a more flexible adjustment programme in response to rising social tensions.