Siza Vieira. “We will have two or three years to recover”

The Minister of Economy, Siza Vieira, was in an interview on RTP 3 this Wednesday, to speak about the economic crisis that is causing the fight against covid-19, and admitted that “if this continues as expected, we will have two for three years to recover “

“We are going to have a sharp drop in GDP. What we have is a big contraction this quarter and then we will start to grow. It will depend on the ability to reconcile the opening of the economy with controlling the spread of the pandemic and the way in which countries can restore conditions, ”he anticipated.

The minister also assured that the recipe for austerity will not be repeated: “The IMF made a kind of mea culpa a few years ago,” he recalled, and defended the stimulus to demand and stability in production.

“We are going to have a big problem of contraction on the demand side. People were confined, many people lost their jobs, there will be a decrease in consumption. If we want to recover the economy, we have to precisely stimulate the ability to readjust demand, which is why we are trying to protect income and employment, and on the other hand, guarantee that companies have the capacity to maintain their productive structure . as intact as possible, “he said.

The proceeds this time will be to operate automatic stabilizers, such as the unemployment benefits buffer.

“I hope that all the international institutions and governments have learned the lessons of the crisis from 2008 to 2012 and that, from there, we can have a European and world concert in the sense that the way out of this crisis must be faster and It must be coordinated, “he said.