PS says new social support will capitalize on surge in home loans

The PS party leader pointed out on Thursday that the new social and business support planned by the government for September will capitalize on the impact of the rise in interest rates, especially in home loans.

This view was conveyed by Eurico Brilhante Dias at a press conference at the end of the PS parliamentary group meeting, after he was confronted by the decision of the European Central Bank (ECB) to raise its three key interest rates by 50 basis points – the first increase in 11 years, with the aim of curbing inflation.

In the presence of journalists, Eurico Brilhante Dias first distinguished between the ECB reference rates and the Euribor rates formed on the interbank market, which are directly related to, for example, mortgages.

“It must be said that part of this movement in ECB reference rates has already been absorbed by the interbank rates themselves. So there is a mechanical effect between the increase in the ECB reference rates and an effect on people’s housing,” he said. said the chairman of the PS group.

For Eurico Brilhante Dias, interest rates on residential loans have risen, although “to values ​​that are still very low compared to history”.

“But this will have an effect on the Portuguese stock market, and probably as early as the second semester. This larger effect in the second semester will happen practically simultaneously with the package of measures that the government will present in September,” he said.

In this sense, the leader of the socialist bank believed that: “the government is very attentive to the inflationary process, which in this case will also have some impact on home loans”.

Regarding the new measures to help families cope with inflation, which the Prime Minister, António Costa, announced on Wednesday that they will be taken in September, the PS MP said that, from a budgetary point of view, your bank four priorities: tax justice and the fight against tax evasion; support for the younger and middle class; incentive for business development; and package more focused on social and territorial cohesion policy.

“There are four areas that were very important in the state budget for 2022. The PS is not expected to present major budgetary changes, but we want to make our mark. These are our four priority areas and the signal we do must with the political hallmark of a political force led by socialism, by social democracy, committed to fiscal, social and territorial justice,” he added.