Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho has urged banks to give more loans to businesses in an effort to fight recession in the heavily-indebted country. "The state is going to ensure that banks can do everything to revive credit distribution," Coelho said on Saturday night after a meeting by his party's national council in Lisbon. He said the recession in his embattled eurozone country was partly caused by "the lack of credit flowing through the economy, while there are banks which are in a position to do so" after being recapitalised with state assistance. Portugal is suffering from its deepest recession in 40 years amid austerity measures imposed by Coelho's government, and the economy is set to contract by 2.3 percent this year after shrinking 3.2 percent in 2012. Unemployment has hit a new record of 16.9 percent and is set to increase even further this year amid cutbacks in public spending. The country is under renewed pressure after the constitutional court last week rejected several austerity measures worth 1.3 billion euros. This will make it difficult for the government to reduce the public sector deficit to 5.5 percent of gross domestic product, a condition for European Union and International Monetary Fund bailout funds. However eurozone finance ministers on Friday agreed to give bailed-out Portugal an extra seven years to repay aid received to save it from collapse. To compensate for the rejected austerity measures government will have to make large budget cuts in the areas of health, social security, education and public enterprises. The planned cuts will on Monday be presented to the troika of EU, IMF and European Central Bank lenders.
GMT 12:09 2018 Monday ,26 November
Black Friday less wild as more Americans turn to online dealsGMT 15:07 2018 Sunday ,18 November
Refugee host countries discuss UNRWA's financial crisisGMT 17:22 2018 Wednesday ,31 October
Russia climbed to 31st place in Doing Business-2019 ratingGMT 16:53 2018 Wednesday ,17 October
"Putin" We need for collective restoration of Syria's economyGMT 14:02 2018 Friday ,12 October
Govt to announce incentives package for Overseas PakistanisGMT 18:26 2018 Saturday ,06 October
Dubai attracts Dh17.7 billion in foreign direct investmentGMT 09:02 2018 Friday ,21 September
Economy of Georgia demonstrates "strong signs of recovery"GMT 09:03 2018 Wednesday ,24 January
German investor confidence surges in JanuaryMaintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©
Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©
Send your comments
Your comment as a visitor