Portugal Approves Austerity Budget

[Joanne98]

Source: NYT

MADRID — Portuguese lawmakers on Friday approved a budget plan for 2011 aimed at reassuring nervous lenders that the country could avoid a bailout by meeting its deficit-cutting targets.

The Parliament’s vote came at the end of a tortuous week in which the borrowing costs of several ailing economies that share the euro rose to new highs amid concerns that others would have to follow the example of the Irish government, which capitulated to bond market pressures by requesting rescue money last Sunday.

The team of European Union and International Monetary Fund experts working in Ireland was aiming to announce the terms of its package this weekend, before markets open on Monday, to try to lift some of the uncertainty that is rattling investors, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who did not want to be identified because the discussions were continuing.

Portuguese and other European officials firmly rejected reports that Portugal was being pressed by its E.U. partners to accept a bailout to help calm markets. “This is not the position of the ministry,” said Bertrand Benoit, spokesman for the German Finance Ministry.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/business/global/27euro.html?partner=rss&emc=rss