‘Troika does not give a millimetre’

Published on 3 October 2013

The troika’s delegation will leave Portugal on October 4 without having given ground on any fundamental measure during the 8th and 9th reviews of the bailout programme, writes Diário de Notícias.

The IMF-ECB-EU troika is demanding new austerity measures to compensate for the ones rejected by the Constitutional Court. These new measures include cuts in state expenses worth €4.3bn in 2014. The troika has also refused to ease next year’s deficit target from 4 per cent to 4.5 per cent, as requested by the Portuguese government, and has also called for a plan B should the Constitutional Court reject further government measures.

According to sources close to the negotiations, if Portugal does not achieve a budget surplus of 0.4 or 0.5 per cent of GDP in 2014 -

there will be no precautionary financial programme to support the country’s return to the markets and everything will depend on the eventual negotiation over a second bailout with Europe.

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