Portugal PM says budget on track to meet 2010 goals

The performance of Portugal's public accounts in the first five months of 2010 should ensure it meets its budget deficit goal for the year as a whole, Prime Minister Jose Socrates told parliament on Friday.
"Between January and May the truth is that performance of the budget gives us comfort and security to guarantee that our budget goals for this year are met," he told parliament.
The country has a target to cut the budget deficit to 7.3 percent of gross domestic product this year from 9.4 percent in 2009.
Socrates said revenues between January and May had risen 4.7 percent, 3.5 percent higher than planned.
"The truth is that we already have indicators, which are still provisional, of revenues between January and May and these indicators are very positive," he said.
Portugal announced last month additional savings of 2 billion euros in the budget, through higher taxes and wage cuts for well-paid civil servants, to speed up reductions in its budget deficit in order to stave off being engulfed by the euro zone debt crisis.
The higher income and value-added tax levels will go into effect in July, after which government revenues should rise further.
Socrates' Socialist government has promised to cut the budget deficit further to 4.6 percent of GDP in 2011 and to 2.8 percent in 2013.