Portugal managed to reduce its public deficit to 2.3 percent of its economic output last year, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said Tuesday, bringing the country back under the EU limit of 3.0 percent.
"With the figures we have today, I can assure you that the 2016 deficit will not be higher than 2.3 percent," he told lawmakers.
Portugal's public deficit shot up into the double digits during the global economic crisis, and despite an international bailout it had difficulty bringing it back down to 4.4 percent in 2015. Costa said last year's drop would allow Portugal to meet, without difficulty, its obligations to Brussels and exit the excessive deficit procedure under which the EU steps up monitoring of member state budgets.
The final figures for Portugal's public deficit, which includes spending by all levels of government and social services, will be published on March 24.
The reduction of the public deficit comes as Portugal's borrowing costs have surged as investors have renewed concerns about the southern European nation's outlook and finances as the European Central Bank begins to reduce the amount of stimulus it injects into the eurozone economy.
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