Europe

Home page

Europe

Troika say Portugal to exit bailout program next year

14 December 2013 02:51 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Portugal's international lenders believe that the bailedout country will exit from the bailout program mid next year when it expires, according to Portuguese lawmakers on Friday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Miguel Frasquilho, spokesperson of Portugal's ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD), said the troika has left Portugal a very "positive message"that the country will exit the program in a "favorable" way and "on the date scheduled" for June 2014.

However, the troika stressed that "the end of the program doesn't mean the end of adjustment."

The PSD lawmakers met with representatives of the troika composed by European Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday in parliament during their 10th evaluation over Portugal's implementation of the bailout program.

MP Pedro Nuno said he was optimistic that Portugal would follow Ireland's footsteps.

"There is only one way for Portugal to finish the program, and that's in the same way as Ireland," he said, pointing out that the country had approached three years of financial assistance and that up to now, all assessments have been positive.

Portugal has been implementing a painful 78-billion-euro (107-billion-U.S. dollar) bailout program with the troika since May 2011. The country has also adopted a strict draft budget for 2014 with more spending cuts and tax hikes to save some 3.9 billion euros in hope for a successful exit from the bailout program in June 2014.