Lisbon (Portugal), January 28: The Portuguese public administration deficit stood at 10.32 billion euros (12.49 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Finance reported on Wednesday.
"The deterioration of the balance... results from the combined effect of reduced revenue (minus 5.6 percent) and increased expenditure (plus 5.3 percent)," the ministry explained in a statement.
To respond to the pandemic, the expenditure of the National Health Service (SNS) increased "very expressively" by close to 7 percent, with investment growing to 262 million euros.
"Personnel expenses also increased by 6.1 percent, largely due to the increase in the number of health professionals in the SNS (plus 6.8 percent), which corresponds to a further 9,078 new workers in 2020," the statement said."The second wave of the pandemic, more intense than expected, and the associated restrictive measures... should lead to a downward revision of the macroeconomic scenario and the budget balance for 2021," it added. (1 euro = 1.21 U.S. dollars)
Source:Xinhua
