AFP - Portugal's public deficit for 2010 was revised upwards to 9.1% of GDP, against 8.6% previously estimated, said Saturday the National Statistics Institute (INE).
The INE has informed the EU statistics office Eurostat revised deficit "due to higher financing needs and government debt, respectively, 0.5 and 0.6 percentage point GDP relative to baseline, "said the Institute of Statistics in a statement.
The country's public debt has also been revised upwards from 92.4 to 93% of GDP, or about 160.4 billion euros.
This result reflects the impact of such contracts associated with the operation of highways, saying "at no cost to users (SCUT), through public-private partnerships that raised doubts about their accounting in public finance said the Ine.
Discussions were underway between INE and Eurostat on these issues "complex" which should be "analyzed after" but "following the request for foreign aid by Portugal, it was necessary anticipate the calendar to collect stable data for 2010 constitute a starting point for negotiations, "said the Ine.
This revision comes as Portugal is currently in a mission of the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) responsible for negotiating with the Portuguese authorities and counterparts contours of the bailout, the amount currently estimated at 80 billion euros, requested on April 7.
The EU and the IMF have already expressed willingness to help Portugal, Lisbon but only if adopted by mid-May an "adjustment program" that will include austerity measures "ambitious" and policy of "growth and competitiveness."
Disallowed by the Parliament rejected new austerity measures, the Socialist Prime Minister Jose Socrates has resigned, paving the way for early parliamentary elections scheduled for June 5.
On March 31, INE had already revised up the 2010 deficit to 8.6% of GDP, due to the inclusion of additional spending of about 3 billion euros, corresponding in particular to injection of funds in various public transport companies and losses of the nationalized bank BPN.
The new 2010 deficit figure is well above initial forecasts of the government which envisaged a target of 7.3% of GDP for 2010 and 4.6% for this year.
"There are no hidden costs in the Portuguese public finances, argued Saturday night the Minister of Economy, José Vieira da Silva. It's just a different way to deal with statistics," in Following a change of method.
