Carlos Costa says that Portugal can condition Europe
“NoIn the case of a country like ours, it is not Europe that conditions us. We are the ones who condition Europe. This may sound strange, but it’s true. We are the element that can remove the safety pin from the European construction”, said today Carlos Costa at the Outlook 2021 Financial Forum, which took place in Lisbon.
The former BdP governor believes that it can happen “if, by chance, through the sustainability” of the national development model and “the sustainability of public finances” to put “European construction in question”.
“We can question this, because the European construction is very exposed to the mismanagement of the Member States”, argued the economist.
In the former governor’s understanding, what is currently at issue are “three sets of problems” that are “vital in Portuguese society”: financial, social and environmental sustainability.
In the financial field, Carlos Costa signaled that “it is not just for the State”, but also for families and companies”.
“We have to ask ourselves why we have a tendency towards unsustainable debt trajectories” in all three cases.
Carlos Costa understands that “whoever commands the decision process is much more oriented towards the short term and towards the extraction of short term interests, rather than the sustainability of the system”.
As for social sustainability, Mário Centeno’s predecessor at the head of the BdP referred that it is “a serious problem” in Portugal, as the country’s social model “is not supported by a model of wealth creation that guarantees its continuity”.
In relation to environmental sustainability, Carlos Costa considers that “it is a problem for all of us that some will solve better than others”.
“Those who will resolve it better than others are the ones who initiate a transition earlier,” he predicted.
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