Economic Survey - Portugal 2004

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Economic Survey - Portugal 2004
« em: Setembro 24, 2004, 09:14:22 pm »
Não sei se já tiveram a oportunidade de ler esta avaliação geral feita pela OECD sobre o nosso país, mas sugiro que dispensem algum tempo a ler porque é bastante interessante e elucidativo.

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http://www.oecd.org/document/36/0,2340, ... _1,00.html

Economic Survey - Portugal 2004: Executive Summary

Convergence of the Portuguese economy toward the more advanced OECD economies seems to have halted in recent years, leaving a significant gap in per capita incomes. The proximate cause is low labour productivity, as employment rates across the board are substantially higher than the EU average. Nor is there a shortage of capital goods in aggregate. But capital equipment in the business sector is not always efficiently used or allocated, and new technologies are not readily adopted. Furthermore, the Portuguese labour force - even its younger members - have had less formal education than workers in other EU countries, including among the new entrants from Central and Eastern Europe, and workers in Portugal also have less access to training than in many other countries. Traditional Portuguese low value-added highly labour-intensive products now face increasing competition from developing countries and from the new EU entrants.

The key medium-term challenge is thus to step up growth through policies that raise human capital and encourage the mobility of the labour force and the diffusion of technological advances. Competition needs to be stiffer, especially in the privatised utility sectors, where incumbents still exercise dominant market power. And the climate for doing business and investing needs to be further improved, so as to encourage firm start-ups and expansion and to allow greater innovation. The authorities have identified the weaknesses in the economy and have legislated for a notably wide range of measures to improve performance. The key is to carry through and deepen these reform programmes and ensure effective implementation.

An important example is recent reforms to the overly large public administration, which have yet to be translated into significant downsizing or substantial reallocation across all areas of government. This is all the more disturbing because a poorly-motivated administration with considerable job security could result in a slower implementation of reforms in other areas.

Effective implementation of reforms to contain the growth of public spending and deliver better outcomes is important  for several reasons. Most urgently, excessive growth in public expenditure in the closing years of the 20th century led to the need to slash spending in the face of the subsequent international downturn in order to limit the growing budget deficit. With the economy showing tentative signs of recovery only in 2004, there has been continued resort to one-off operations and budget freezes to satisfy the 3 per cent deficit limit set by the Maastricht Treaty. It is important that these measures be phased out soon and replaced by more decisive implementation of programmes to raise the efficiency and quality of public expenditure. This would help solve the chronic problem of structurally weak public finances, and permit Portugal to ride out its typically sharp cyclical experiences without having to cut or postpone fundamentally important programmes. In the longer term, further consolidation is necessary as an ageing population will begin to make increasing demands on the public purse to finance pensions and health care.

Reforms to health care, the subject of a special chapter, have recently been put in place, along lines recommended in past Economic Surveys. They are intended to improve the quality of delivery without raising costs, and to slow the growth of costs in the future. The reforms create better managerial and incentive structures for hospitals and general practitioners, reduce waiting lists, and reduce the costs of pharmaceuticals. An important aspect of the reforms is the setting up of an independent regulatory agency with responsibilities and powers to ensure that citizens have equitable access to health care and that the suppliers are delivering high-quality services. Early indications are that there have been savings in spending on pharmaceuticals and improvements in hospital services. Effective implementation of the wide-ranging programme will be key to achieving durable results, but additional measures may be needed to further raise efficiency, reduce current cost pressures and improve health status.
"Esta é a ditosa pátria minha amada."