Brussels, 05/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - The troika fact-finders who have been in the country since 28 August have said they are prepared to adjust the country's structural adjustment programme, explained a Portuguese parliamentarian from the ruling coalition on Tuesday 4 September after a meeting with the troika of lenders (the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund). The MP, Miguel Frasquillio, deputy-head of the centre-right Social Democrat Party, said that the troika had shown flexibility over the idea of the programme being adjusted to changes in the economy since the Memorandum of Understanding (bailout agreement) was signed in May 2011.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) expressed dismay in a press release at the negative impact of austerity measures on the living standards and future prospects of Portuguese residents and workers. The ETUC says the austerity measures imposed by the troika since 2011 in return for a loan of €78 billion over three years are both ineffective and counter-productive. With unemployment at 16% and the economy contracting by 3% a year, Portugal is sinking into deeper crisis and the outlook for 2013 is far from rosy, adds the ETUC. Bernadette Segol, ETUC general secretary, says that the situation in Portugal is a clear demonstration of the ineffectiveness and limits of austerity and one spending cut after another. She called on the troika to learn from this and immediately change its approach, a view supported by the Portuguese socialist opposition. (SP/transl.fl)