Lisbon - The Portuguese parliament was Tuesday due to approve the country's toughest austerity budget in decades, amid concerns that legal challenges could endanger the country's economic recovery.
The 2014 budget foresees savings worth 3.9 billion euros (5.3 billion dollars) - or 2.3 per cent of Portugal's gross domestic product (GDP).
The measures include salary cuts of up to 12 per cent for government employees earning more than 675 euros a month.
The budget was expected to be approved thanks to the support of the two governing conservative parties, which are aiming to bring the budget deficit down to 4 per cent of GDP in 2014, from an expected 5.9 per cent this year.
That goal was agreed with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which granted Lisbon a bailout worth 78 billion euros in 2011.
Portugal's economy is currently showing some signs of emerging from a more than two-year recession, with GDP growing by 0.2 per cent in the third quarter and unemployment falling slightly, to 15.6 per cent.
Those figures have reinforced the view that Portugal could make a full return to the financial markets after its bailout programme expires, in the middle of 2014.
The IMF has warned that the additional cuts envisaged in the 2014 budget may spark legal challenges from the country's Constitutional Court, which has already struck down several of the government's earlier cost-cutting measures.
The country's largest trade union confederation, the CGTP, has called nationwide protests to coincide with Tuesday's parliamentary. - Sapa-dpa