LONDON | By BARCLAYS | The Portuguese government presented yesterday the draft Budget Law for 2014. Fiscal measures to be deployed amount to EUR3.9bn (2.4% of GDP), about 0.4% of GDP above the EUR3.3bn announced in May when the cabinet approved additional austerity measures to meet revised fiscal targets for this year and next (EUR1.4bn in 2013 and EUR3.3bn in 2014).
LISBON | By Helena Matos via Presseurop | The International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank are back in Lisbon to evaluate the results of the 2011 bailout plan. This is good because otherwise Portugal would make the same mistakes that led to the crisis in the first place.
PARIS | By Philippe Ricard via Presseurop | In Lisbon, shock therapy has failed to bring down the government. In Vilnius, it has made for a fast-tracked entry into Europe. What lessons can we learn from these criss-crossing paths?
LISBOA | By José Alves via capitalmadrid.com | Now the debt ratio in Portugal has risen almost 30 points to about 130% of GDP, the budget gap will exceed 8% this year and the unemployment rate approaches 20%.
MADRID | By Julia Pastor |Portugal and Slovenia’s debt comes back to the dangerous rate of 7%, while S&P’s responsible for EMEA defends that there is no immediate threat to peripheral countries’s debt since some of them have been able to pre-fund its needs.
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Small and medium size companies are the most vulnerable side of the European economy, but also the most powerful weapon to get out of the crisis. Germany will develop a €10 billion credit plan to move peripheral countries SMEs for their own export engine works.
LISBON | The Portuguese Constitutional Court’s rejection of some proposed austerity measures is the latest setback for Portugal’s government. However, this is an opportunity truly to reform the state and end the current impasse.
Contagion has been bucked in the eurozone, in spite of the instability markets forecast over Italian politics.
From Presseurope.eu | By Daniel Oliveira | More than a million people of all ages took to the streets of Portugal on March 2 to demand an end to austerity. The growing discontent could bring down the political system that has been in place since the fall of the dictatorship.
Presseurop.eu | By François Musseau |European leaders are counting on Portugal to set an example of how austerity can succeed when it is applied seriously. Sadly, despite a unprecedented tightening of the screw, Lisbon is still being forced to sell off its “crown jewels” to halt its spiralling debts.