Draft state budge for 2016 'responsible'

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Friday the draft state budget for 2016 is "responsible" as it has met national commitments to the European Union to reduce the deficit and debt.

"This is a responsible budget, because it favors economic growth and job creation, improves social protection and ensures the accuracy of public accounts, reducing the deficit and public debt," Costa said in a statement to Portuguese Lusa News Agency.

Costa said the proposal of the state budget "complies with the electoral commitments of the Socialist Party (PS)" to its alliance of the Communists and Greens before it took power in November last year.

The draft state budget for 2016 was approved on Thursday by the Socialist government which includes a forecast deficit of 2.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for this year, 0.4 percentage points less than that of 2015.

The budget should have been submitted to the European Union for review by the previous center-right government which won the October general elections but lost an absolute majority in the 230-seat parliament.

The PS, together with the leftist parties in the parliament, toppled the center-right coalition and vowed to reverse the harsh austerity measures they had implemented in the past few years in accordance with a 78-billion-euro (84 billion U.S. dollars) bailout program with international creditors.