In an interview with Lusa, the professor of Economics at New York University (NYU) and a collaborator at AESE Business School considered that there are some obstacles to the growth of the Portuguese economy "in which it would be possible to reach an agreement in principle" between the two largest parties with parliamentary representation.

"As it is a minority government, it would be good for this Government to have this mentality. Many of these reforms cannot be government reforms, they have to be regime reforms", he said.

According to Luís Cabral, this agreement "could be of a political nature or even something with legal implications between the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Socialist Party (PS)" with the aim of "creating a certain stability to directly attack" the "problems that have hindered the growth of the economy".

Luís Cabral, who was in Portugal to present the session 'Why is the Portuguese economy not growing?', within the scope of the first 2024 edition of the AESE Business School's Economics & Finance Observatory, pointed out as an example the creation of an independent agency for the evaluation of legislation and the housing market in Portugal, whose main problem he considers to be rent.

"It is a market that works very badly. Why does it work so badly? Because every two years, each new government, things change a little. If it is a more socialist government, it becomes more favourable to the tenant. If it is a more PSD government, it becomes more favourable to the landlord. Things change a little along this dimension", he pointed out.

In practice, a climate of legal instability has been created over the last few decades, which is harmful, he indicates.

"That would be an aspect in which it was said that we are going to make an agreement here... to say: 'look, there are certain boundaries here, we are not going to leave here'. I don't know how it is done legally, I don't know. I don't want it to be an amendment to the Constitution, but it has to be a political agreement, perhaps with a legal form, I don't know that very well", he says.

The economist recognises that "they are two parties with two different objectives", but recalls Diogo Freitas do Amaral, one of the founders of CDS-PP who agreed to join a PS government, when he said: "We have great divergences, but we also have common aspects. We want the best for the country, and therefore, if one goes to Viseu and the other goes to Porto, we will go together to Coimbra".

"I think that a lot of the Portuguese economy today has this nature, namely in what corresponds to the Socialist Party and the Social Democratic Party", he argues.

Questioned about the Government's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth prospects, the economist considers that "they are not objectives, they are hopes".

"If we are talking about a question of forecasts, frankly, the answer is that I don't know. I think that people say they know, in fact, they don't know, because macroeconomic forecasts are very difficult, and especially over such a long period as a year", he considers.

For Luís Cabral, these are systems that "involve the behaviour of millions of agents over such a long period that it is like predicting the weather".

Leia Também: Luís Cabral defende que Seg. Social não deve ser financiada pelo trabalho (Portuguese version)