Eurozone member Portugal’s interim government reached a “good agreement” on a three-year 78 billion euro (US$115.5 billion) bailout package from the EU and IMF, outgoing Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates said.
“I would like to announce to the Portuguese people that the government has reached agreement today with the representatives of international institutions on the program of financial aid to our country,” Socrates said on Tuesday.
“The government has reached a good agreement that defends Portugal,” he said in a televised address.
His office later said that Portugal was seeking 78 billion euros in foreign assistance under the program.
Officials from the “troika” of the European Central Bank, the EU and the IMF have been in Lisbon for two weeks negotiating the terms of the financial rescue package.
Socrates said the plan called for a loosening of the deficit reduction targets for Portugal, whose economy is expected to shrink this year as it implements austerity measures.
“It is a three-year program which sets more gradual deficit reduction targets: 5.9 percent this year, 4.5 percent in 2012 and 3 percent in 2013,” the prime minister said.
But he did not give details about how this would be implemented, saying he needed “consultations” with opposition parties.
Lisbon was forced to ask for a bailout last month after Socrates’ government resigned following a parliamentary dispute and the rejection of a fourth round of austerity measures sent its borrowing costs prohibitively higher.
Lisbon has to have the bailout package in place by June 15, when it must repay nearly 5 billion euros in maturing debt.
However, the IMF stressed late on Tuesday that the pact would have to be approved by the main opposition parties.
“We have said from the beginning that it is important that any program should have broad cross-party support and we will continue our engagement with the opposition parties to establish that this is the case,” a spokesman said.
Portugal is the third eurozone member to seek international assistance following Greece’s 110 billion euro rescue one year ago and Ireland’s 85 billion euro bailout in November.
Lisbon had previously aimed to reduce its public deficit to 4.6 percent of GDP this year, 3 percent next year and 2 percent in 2013.
These targets were put in doubt when the national statistics office announced last month that the public deficit last year came in at 9.1 percent of GDP, above the government’s target of 7.3 percent.
EU rules require the bloc’s 27 member states to keep their deficits below 3 percent, although nations may be permitted some leeway during an economic crisis.
Portugal’s public debt totals nearly 160.4 billion euros, or 93 percent of GDP.
The quick agreement of the terms of the rescue package means that eurozone finance ministers will be able to review the plan at their regular monthly meeting on May 16.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
RSS