Photo: AP
Portugal's parliament has passed an austerity budget on Friday, aimed to cut the country's high debt levels and restore the confidence of financial market. The budget provides for measures to cut the deficit from 7.3% of economic output this year to 4.6% in 2011.
Prime Minister Jose Socrates said the budget's passage concluded many months of political battles that at one point threatened the government's survival. For the next week he announced a series of meeting with social representatives, managers and worker unions to began a social dialogue.
The opposition Social Democrats oppose tax rises, preferring spending cuts, but agreed last week to abstain from voting. The conservative nationalist CDS-PP said the budget is insufficient to reassure markets about the state of Portugal's economy. The budget raised controversy also among public and private workers, culminating in the Wednesday general strike.
No comments:
Post a Comment