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LISBON, Oct. 27-- Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa and his new minority government, sworn in on Saturday, will have a more favorable position than his previous one four years ago, but may face more challenges ahead, political analysts have said. At Saturday's inauguration ceremony, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa noted that the new government will face more challenges. "The task that awaits you is not easy. Today's Europe and the world are different, more complex, and more uNPRedictable," the president said, adding that the Portuguese expectations are higher, with the new government having fewer resources to meet those expectations. How to maintain high economic growth in an unfavorable situation is a tough task for the new government, although the budgetary balance and the outstanding economic achievements in the past four years are the main factors behind the Socialist Party's (PS) victory in the national elections earlier this month, academics and political analysts told Xinhua. Antonio Costa Pinto, political scientist and coordinating researcher at Political Sciences Institute (ICS) in Lisbon, expected the new socialist government to keep the budgetary consolidation policy. "What we don't know is if it will be able to respond to the demands of the Left parties -- higher growth of the national health system, pension recovery, minimum wage increase," says Costa Pinto, adding that those are the areas in which lie the main challenges for the new government economic policy. | 
