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EU Ministers OK $110.8 Billion Portugal Rescue
European Union finance ministers cleared the way for Portugal to receive 78 billion euros ($110.8 billion) in aid, making it the third euro-area country to fall back on official loans.
The EU’s two bailout funds, the European Financial Stability Facility and European Financial Stabilization Mechanism, will each provide one-third of the assistance, while the International Monetary Fund will contribute the rest, the EU said in a statement after a unanimous vote in Brussels today.
Finance ministers called Portugal’s planned budget cuts “ambitious but credible,” according to the statement. The aid program will run for three years.
Portugal follows Greece and Ireland in requesting a bailout from the EU and International Monetary Fund. Politicians are struggling to convince investors that 256 billion euros in aid to the three countries will be enough to stamp out Europe’s debt crisis and prevent the euro region’s first restructuring.
Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said before the meeting he was confident of approval because “all the issues that we had to clarify were clarified.” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had also been upbeat about Portugal’s aid request.
The meeting was clouded by the May 14 arrest of IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Read more…
Setbacks in Portugal and Ireland Renew Worry on Debt Crisis
Allied Irish Bank is one of several prominent financial institutions in Ireland in need of a rescue.
LONDON — A higher-than-expected budget deficit in Portugal and the need for more money to rescue Ireland’s failing banks have renewed fears that Europe’s debt crisis is worsening despite its sizable bailout fund.
Officials in Lisbon said Thursday that the country’s budget deficit last year was 8.6 percent of its gross domestic product, well above the goal of 7.3 percent. Although officials said the revision would not affect the government’s goal of reaching a deficit of 4.6 percent of domestic product in 2011, the news was a reminder that, even after the problems from Greece’s fraudulent deficit statistics, some numbers from the euro zone remain unreliable.
Also Thursday, Ireland’s central bank announced that four of the country’s most prominent financial institutions would need an additional 24 billion euros to cover sour real estate loans, a move that pushes the Read more…
Portugal’s Government May Collapse Before EU Summit
In a report published by Reuters, the Portuguese parliament is expected to reject government austerity measures on Wednesday, which could lead to the collapse of the minority Socialist administration one day before the EU summit.
The country’s Prime Minister, Jose Socrates, has declared that he will resign if the plan is defeated, due to the fact that its rejection would force debt-ridden Portugal to seek a similar international bailout to Greece and Ireland.
If Socrates stands by his word, then he appears to be heading for the exit door as all opposition parties have proposed resolutions calling for the rejection of the measures, which would look to cut the debt by reducing pensions and state spending.
The main opposition is the Social Democrats, and the party has already begun talking about a snap election. When asked if it is likely that the government will step down, Socialist bench leader in parliament Francisco Assis said that, “If all these positions that now seem irreversible are confirmed, then yes.”
“The prime minister does not want to resign, but he cannot govern against his convictions,” Assis said.
Pressure on Portugal After New Credit Downgrade
LISBON — Portugal’s borrowing costs pushed higher after Moody’s downgraded the country’s credit rating, stoking the pressure on the country’s beleaguered minority government.
The yield on Portugal’s ten-year bond rose 0.04 percentage point to 7.44 percent. The equivalent yields for Greece and Spain, two other euro countries struggling with high borrowing levels, were down modestly.
Moody’s Investors Services cut the country’s rating by two notches to A3 late Tuesday, saying the debt-stressed country is struggling to generate growth and faces a tough battle to restore the fiscal health needed to calm jittery financial markets.
Prime Minister Jose Socrates said late Tuesday he would quit if Parliament doesn’t consent to his government’s latest batch of contested austerity measures.
Portugal aims to raise up to €1 billion in a sale of Read more…
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