Portugal exits bailout proud and confident

Portugal is proud to announce that it will be exiting its 78-billion-euro program without a precautionary credit line.

Lisbon entered the bailout program in 2011 with help received from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

After three years of highly unpopular measures taken by the government and austerity, the end of the bailout program is regarded as a major success for the Portuguese government that is now at power.

‘We have financial reserves for one year that protect us from any external agitation. We have the trust of investors and the rates of our debt are at a historically low level,’ Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho declared during a news conference.

However, socialist party leader António José Seguro does not see the bright side of things, stating that: ‘In the same week that government announces that they don’t want help to return to the market, the Portuguese people were informed that VAT will rise, that all workers will pay more taxes, that the cuts in pensions are forever and that there will be more job cuts in the public sector.’

Portugal is the second country, after Ireland, to exit its bailout program without a credit line.