PORTUGAL'S PLAN SETTLES THE NERVES

摘要

The trials and tribulations of the Greek economy have caused a few nervous glances to be cast in the direction of Portugal, with some observers worried that the country could face a similar debt crisis. However, the Portuguese government's late budget and four-year austerity programme have gone a long way to allaying such fears.rnWill Portugal be the next domino to fall? Amid fears that the Greek debt crisis could spread across southern Europe, this was the unsettling question that international financial markets forced the Portuguese government to address earlier this year.rnAfter pushing a late budget and a four-year austerity programme through parliament, Portugal's minority Socialist Party government appears to have satisfied investors, credit rating agencies and the European Commission that any such misgivings were unfounded.