The Public Finance Council (CFP) is an independent body that monitors compliance with budgetary rules in Portugal and the sustainability of public finances. As can be seen in its own link, the CFP highlights “the mission of independently evaluating the consistency, compliance and sustainability of budgetary policy, promoting its transparency, in order to contribute to the quality of democracy and decision-making economic policy and to reinforce the State’s financial credibility”. Furthermore, the CFP is the independent body that in Portugal carries out the supervisory functions provided for in Community legislation. The CFP is one of the European budgetary councils, also known as budgetary watchdogs (fiscal watchdogs). This conference will address crucial topics for our collective life, eg, debt, budgetary rules, deficits, which need to be analyzed, evaluated and monitored due to the financial fragility of the Portuguese economy. The moment we are going through is one of strong political instability with mediocre economic growth and a high level of debt. As stated in the latest CFP Bulletin, the demographic evolution and productivity growth projected for Portugal over the next 15 years currently constitute the main long-term macroeconomic risks. The CFP's macroeconomic scenario presented projects an average growth in real GDP of 1.2% per year between 2023 and 2037. Still in its long-term projections, the CFP predicts that the capital factor should remain relatively stable and the contribution of the labor factor should be heavily penalized by demographic evolution, whose projections point to a reduction of 0.3% per year in the working-age population. These reasons are enough to worry us but, at the same time, they require a direct explanation, so that we can reverse this background scenario. This is the objective of the conference.
Moderator
speakers
Antonio Duarte Santos
Antonio Duarte Santos. Doctor in Economics, specializing in Public Economics and Regulation. Master in Management and Public Administration. Postgraduate in Banking Management. Degree in Economics. Professor at the Autonomous University of Lisbon. Researcher at CARS – Center for Economic Analysis of Social Regulation. Member of ENHR – European Housing Research Network. Member of ASEPELT – International Association of Applied Economics. Member of the American Association of Economists (AEA). Associate Member of the Institute of Public Policy (IPP). Associate of SEDES – Association for Economic and Social Development. Associate of MIL – Lusophone International Movement. Associate Member of APM – Portuguese Management Association.
Speaker
speakers
Nazaré da Costa Cabral
President of the Public Finance Council.