Brussels, 27/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - Arriving for the Eurogroup meeting on Monday 27 January, the head of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said that a decision on Portugal's exit from its aid programme would be taken in March or April.
Dijsselbloem refused to comment on whether the country would ask for preventative aid in the form of a credit line from the European Stability Mechanism when it exits the three-year aid programme in mid-May. He said he wanted to see the figures before commenting. The European Commission's president, José Manuel Durão Barroso, and Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn have already recommended such a course of action - one that Ireland rejected when its aid plan ended in December 2013.
The Portuguese government says the public deficit for 2013 will be around 5%, thus easily achieving the target of cutting the deficit to 5.5% of GDP (4% in 2014). (MB/transl.fl)