Europe

Europe

Portugal to adopt new recessive measures

12 August 2011 23:18 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Portuguese government on Friday announced a new set of austerity measures to meet deficit goals, following approval for the second tranche of its bail-out program from a "troika" review mission", APA reports quoting Xinhua

The "troika" mission, composed of European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), gave green light for the crisis-hit country to receive the next disbursement of 11.5 billion euros (16.3 billion U.S. dollars).

"The program is on track and the government has enhanced key measures ahead of time," said Poul Thomsen, head of the IMF delegation, whose words echoed a joint statement of the mission.

He emphasized that at this moment the main goal is to launch an extensive fiscal reform so that the country can gain competitiveness.

"There are two ways out: we adjust by becoming poorer or we adjust by becoming more productive. Above all, the program rests upon the opening of the Portuguese economy, make the economy more competitive," Thomsen told a press conference.

Juergen Kroeger, director of the EC delegation, enumerated the progress made by Portugal in order to meet the goals of the Memorandum or Understanding that established the bailout program.

"Considering that the country has a new government that is in office only for a few weeks, we see a strong commitment with all the goals of the program," he said.

In response to the call and recognition of the review mission, Portuguese Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar later on Friday unveiled a new set of measures with an aim to save 1 billion euros.

Agreed in a 10-hour cabinet meeting Thursday, the fresh austerity measures include tax raises and the elimination of intermediary expenses in the public services.

Portugal has already received 19.8 billion euros of the three-year 78-billion-euro bailout program agreed in May.