Azores are only region to fulfil Maastricht criteria on deficit and debt, stresses José Manuel Bolieiro - Communication

Presidência do Governo Regional

The President of the Regional Government, José Manuel Bolieiro, stressed today that, according to the most recent data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), the Azores are the only region to comply with the so-called Maastricht criteria on deficit and debt, unlike Portugal as a whole and Madeira.

According to the Maastricht criteria, the annual budget deficit must not exceed 3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the total public debt must not exceed 60% of the GDP - these criteria are defined to guarantee the stability of the countries and regions that have adopted the Euro as their currency.

José Manuel Bolieiro received today the Regional Secretary for Finance, Planning and Public Administration, Duarte Freitas, at the Conceição Palace in Ponta Delgada, where he presented data on the Azores' budget deficit and public debt for 2023, with technical analysis and comments from professor Teresa Tiago.

"The Autonomous Region of the Azores fulfils the Maastricht criteria as far as its public accounts are concerned, which is quite satisfactory. We are working on clarifying the transformation of commercial debt into financial debt, in the interests of account transparency," he said.

"I am reassured about the path we are following. There is so much to be done as a result of the situation we were left with in terms of the public finances of the Autonomous Region of the Azores and the economy itself, as well as strengthening the public and private business fabric," continued the President of the Government.

And he ensured: "I want to clarify that we will not forsake a path of consistency in reducing the tax burden."

José Manuel Bolieiro also stated that human resources, "the key to the development" of the Azores, were a priority of the XIII Government and are now for the new Government of the Azores. As he noted, "social peace" is a reality in the Region and the development of careers in civil service, education and health.

The President of the Regional Government pointed out that there are now prospects of overcosts in the Azores in areas such as education - more than 10% - and health - more than 25% - compared to Mainland Portugal.

"We need to guarantee an upward revision of the Regional Finance Law," he reiterated, recalling the ongoing works with the Government of Madeira on this matter, under the leadership of Professor Eduardo Paz Ferreira.

It should also be noted that the Court of Auditors gave the first positive opinion on the Regional Account since 2016 for the 2022 Account, and the international rating agency Fitch has recently upgraded the Azores' rating for the first time since 2019.

In 2023, the National Government had yet to pay 53 million Euros for the damage caused by Hurricane Lorenzo and the Efrain Depression.

The Region is committed to maintaining the downward trend in the proportion of debt to the GDP that began on December 31, 2022, with a drop of almost five percentage points expected in 2023 and 2024.

In 2021 and 2022, the average annual growth of real GDP in the Azores stood at 7.10%, while in the country it was about 6.25%, meaning that the Azores grew 0.85 percentage points more than Portugal in these two years.

While the GDP figure for the Autonomous Region of the Azores for 2023 is yet to be definitively known, the deficit figure for 2023 will certainly be below the reference threshold of 3% of the GDP. The debt will not only remain below 60% of the GDP but should even decrease compared to the 2022 ratio, with the Regional Government estimating that it will stand at 56.92% in 2023 and 55.72% in 2024.