The budget deficit for 2012 was expected to end at 5 per cent, while the recession in the economy is also projected to last until 2013, with a decline in GDP of 3 per cent in 2012 and 1 per cent in 2013; a return to positive real growth is anticipated for 2014. The year 2013 is the final period of the three-year EU aid program and is also the third consecutive year that the Portuguese economy has contracted (the seventh consecutive quarterly contraction). It is anticipated that the conclusion of the EU's support package, worth €78 billion, will leave Portugal with a €12 billion funding gap in 2014.