An internal International Monetary Fund report, released on September 17, argues that austerity must have "speed limits" and admits some of the policies the fund has imposed entail "self-destructive" risks.
Now that the EU-ECB-IMF troika has arrived in the country for the eighth and ninth evaluation of the bailout program, Público notes that —
… with nine months left to run before Portugal reaches the end of the programme agreed with the troika, the IMF has lost faith in such ideas as: "fiscal consolidation may have an expansionary effect on the economy", "that the sooner deficits are corrected, the better", "that fiscal consolidation should focus mainly on expenditure" and "that the purchase of government debt by the central banks is always negative."
In its editorial, the daily wonders —
Will the IMF be able to understand, for once, what should actually be done in the case of Portuguese sovereign debt? Or should Portugal resign itself to remain a docile guinea pig for an ever changing hotchpotch of solutions?
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