The government welcomes opposition parties to parliament on Friday

The government is hosting opposition parties in parliament on Friday in a round of separate sessions that will lay out the overall direction of next year’s government budget, the executive said on Wednesday.

These meetings with all parties, with the exception of the PS, will be attended by the Deputy Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Ana Catarina Mendes, and the Minister of Finance, Fernando Medina.

“The government welcomes parliamentary parties and MPs who are the sole representatives of the party in accordance with the Statute of the Right to Opposition,” the executive director said.

According to the office of Ana Catarina Mendes, the parliamentary group of the PSD will be received first on Friday at 9 am, followed, at half-hour intervals, by the benches of Chega, the Liberal Initiative, the PCP and the BE, concluding this round with meetings with the only deputy of the Livre, Rui Tavares and PAN Ines de Souza Real.

In the Stability Program in April, the government forecast economic growth of 1.8% this year and 2% in 2024, and inflation of 5.1% this year and 2.9% in 2024.

In terms of government finances, the Treasury pointed in April to a deficit of 0.4% this year and 0.2% in 2024. However, the Prime Minister has already made it clear that the state will achieve a budget surplus this year.

The government forecasts that the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product (GDP) will fall from 112.4% in 2022 to 106.1% this year, according to a forecast sent by the government to Brussels as part of the excessive deficit procedure published by the National Statistical Office. Institute (INE) at the end of September, remaining below the 107.5% forecast in the Stability Program.

In the Stability Program, the government forecasts a ratio of 103% in 2024.