Duarte Freitas announces that Azores' debt is close to 3,600 million Euros in 2020 - Communication

Secretaria Regional das Finanças, Planeamento e Administração Pública

The Regional Secretary for Finance, Planning and Public Administration, Duarte Freitas, announced today that the Azores’ debt stood at almost 3,600 million Euros in 2020. These are "brutal figures" that "should be known and recognised by all," a situation that calls for an approach to the future based on "rigour."

During a parliamentary debate on the regional finances, Duarte Freitas recalled that "the Region's future financial responsibilities, i.e., what the Azoreans will have to pay, are the result of financial debt, non-financial debt and other responsibilities. They include commitments to public-private partnerships and the liabilities of the Regional Public Corporate Sector that do not consolidate, with the exception of EDA."

And he continued: "So that every Azorean may know the reality, the sum of these future financial responsibilities that fall upon them amounts to three thousand, five hundred and ninety-eight million, eighty-seven thousand, one hundred and thirty-one Euros and seventy-one cents."

Duarte Freitas also regretted that, at the same time as the Region was accumulating financial responsibilities under previous socialist governments, it "registered some of the worst socio-economic indicators in the country and even in the European Union."

"This portrait of our reality also gives rise to a new perspective for the future. In light of the budget implementation data to date, and considering zero debt for next year, we estimate that it will be possible to present a proposal for an Investment Plan of about 600 million Euros. We do not promise illusions, but rigour. We do not announce millions, but transparency. We should not promise the biggest plans ever if we want to reverse the growth process of future financial responsibilities. We prefer the truth and all the burden it entails. The future, being the eternal truth, imposes a political

Duarte Freitas also informed the members of the Regional Legislative Assembly that the XIII Government of the Azores will "regularly release data on the situation of regional finances."