Manuela Ferreira Leite has learned to ‘distrust numbers’ and warns they can ‘mask reality’.

Former Finance Minister Manuela Ferreira Leite admitted on Tuesday that she has learned to “distrust the numbers” and warned that statistics “do not solve any problems” and may even be a way to “mask reality.”

The former leader of the SDP was awarded the Order of Economists at a meeting attended by former President of the Republic Cavaco Silva and various figures of the SDP such as Carlos Moedas, Leonor Beleza, David Justino, Paulo Mota Pinto, Manuel Castro Almeida, Eduardo Catroga, Fernando Negrao, Marques Guedes , as well as PSD First Vice President Paulo Rangel, who was responsible for presenting his professional and civilian career.

The President of the Republic joined this tribute, which took place at the Graduate Institute of Economics and Management of the University of Lisbon (ISEG), by means of a video message welcoming the “very fair tribute” in which Ferreira Leite was awarded the title of Distinguished Economist.

“It is elementary justice that not only a friend, admirer, citizen, comrade of so many struggles, but, moreover, the President of the Republic joins this tribute, thanking on behalf of the entire Portuguese people for their constant dedication, loyalty and loyalty to the service of our country”, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa emphasized.

In her speech, Manuela Ferreira Leite admitted that when she chose the direction of study, economics, she was attracted to mathematics and numbers.

“I realize that I am ending my professional life without trusting them. We economists must resist the spread of misleading truths, which numbers often lead to without adequate interpretation and which thus undermine the credibility of institutions,” he said.

Without any direct reference to national political life, the former minister stated that “if statistics are an analytical tool to guide policy, they do not solve any of the problems that affect the well-being of citizens.”

“They are not solutions to problems, but they can turn them into an illusion. If economic policy is not adjusted to the reality for which it is intended (…), if, on the contrary, they try to adjust reality to the desired statistics, regardless of social consequences, it means that the priority, the big goal is the magic number, ”he warned .

For Ferreira Leite, when statistics are “no longer a portrait of reality, but a way of disguising it”, it means “the opposite of politics with social problems”.

Earlier, Paulo Rangel praised the laureate, highlighting her great “willingness to serve the public cause” and leaving “uncertainty” in his leadership of the SDP during the period when he himself was president of the social democratic parliamentary group.

“Knowing well her political, professional and personal qualities, bearing in mind her unshakable authority, many were perplexed and asked me why Manuela Ferreira Leite could not become the leader of the opposition, reaching the head of government,” he said.

The answer, he explained, came to him after re-reading Agustin Bessa Luis’s book O Comum dos Mortais, in which he wrote of a character who was almost President of the Council: “I have qualities, but I have no faults.”

As he left, Cavaco Silva only noted a “very fair tribute” to Ferreira Leite and his pride in the friendship and work they have developed over the decades, in an initiative that also involved former Banco de Portugal Governor Carlos Costa, former minister Paulo Macedo and former PS MP Vitor Ramalho, among many others.

With a degree in economics from the Higher Institute of Economics and Finance (currently ISEG), Manuela Ferreira Leite was Secretary of State for Budget and Minister of Education under Cavaco Silva and Minister of Finance under Duran Barroso.

In 2008, she became the first woman to lead a political party in Portugal, the PSD, which she led for two years.