A CLEAN PAIR OF HEELS

摘要

Portugal has closed a troubled chapter, exiting from a €78bn bailout. Despite concerns over the country's €214bn of debt, and the fact that its sovereign debt is still junk-rated, there is a consensus that momentum is going in the right direction. The pain of Portugal's tearful exit at the semifinal stage of this year's Eurovision Song Contest on May 6 was eased by a more triumphant and significant one later in the month when the country made a clean break from its €78bn bailout, joining Ireland as the second bailed-out peripheral European sovereign to put its woes behind it. For Portugal this is an impressive turnround - only four months ago there was still talk that the country needed a second bail-out. Positive economic data coupled with a broader rally in peripheral European bonds underpinned by expectations of new stimulus measures across the eurozone have, however, enabled Portugal to close a troubled chapter.