The IMF today issued a carefully worded statement that Portugal’s managerial class could do with distinct improvement.
"There is a need for good managers to increase worker productivity," according to the IMF which recommends that the government must "review the effectiveness and the extent of the programmes to promote management skills in Portugal," which as it well knows are close to zero.
The International Monetary Fund report by staff, hence not authorised by IMF Directors, published today at the end of the current reporting period which began on March 5th, stated that "the productivity of workers, especially the low skilled, also depends on the skills of managers."
Hence, any low productivity that exists is being blamed by the IMF on management rather than the workers.
The IMF stated also that it is an uphill struggle to sort out the long-term unemployed as the minimum wage recently has been raised hiked which “could further reduce the chances of low-skilled workers making the transition from inactivity to employment."
The IMF led by the steely Christine Lagarde is still annoyed at the rise in the minimum wage in Portugal which it called premature and short sighted at the time when the level rose to a mere €505 a month, somewhat more than Lagarde earns in a morning – tax free.
The IMF stance is that "although minimum wages may be useful to prevent the abuse of workers and it provide an income floor, excessive increases can harm the very people it is intended to support."
The IMF said that "the government has more effective policy instruments to combat poverty" and that the social partners have a "special responsibility to promote the creation of jobs by supporting policies that strengthen the country's competitiveness," calling for "a more inclusive and transparent social dialogue."
This waffle has become the norm from the IMF which now has little fiscal control over Portuguese policy and resents the willful disobedience of its pupil.
According to the IMF report there is a need to "review the reforms" that have not yet worked and to "reexamine some public sector reforms." Gone are the teeth and desire to force changes through during the Troika period of control, welcome to wordy and worthy reports heavy with regret that Portugal has not been playing its part in the reform agenda agreement.
Comments
But I agree that Portugal's managers are poor, along with managers of every other EU country, and I have had the misfortune to work with many of them. In today's business world the manager spends most of his/her time carrying out self appraisals, writing mission statements and sitting in classrooms drinking mineral water and sucking mints.