Brussels, 14/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday evening, the eurozone finance ministers backed Portugal's new austerity measures, designed with the aid of the troika (the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF), which had sent a group of experts to the country from 7 to 12 May for this purpose. The eurozone will now release the next batch of aid for Portugal, €2.1 billion. Disbursement of the aid was put on hold in April following a ruling by the Portuguese constitutional court that some of the austerity measures planned in the 2013 budget were illegal. The idea of the 2013 budget is to reduce the public deficit to 5.5% of GDP from 6.4% in 2012, as laid down in the objectives agreed upon with the troika of lenders. The measures unveiled on Monday by finance minister Vitor Gaspar to his eurozone counterparts include budget cuts in all ministries, a reduction in staff numbers in the civil service and extending civil servants' retirement age to 66. Portugal needed to find savings of €4.8 billion in order for its lenders to agree to the next aid disbursement. On Monday evening, Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn hailed the measures, saying that Portugal's structural adjustment programme remained on track despite the period of uncertainty generated by the constitutional court ruling. The head of Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said the new measures paved the way for final agreement on extending by seven years the repayment deadlines for the loans to Portugal. (SP/transl.fl)