LISBON--Portugal won't join Greece in any debt-renegotiation
request, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said Friday.
"I won't be joining any group that may be proposed to
restructure the debt," Mr. Passos Coelho told lawmakers in
parliament after one of them said the new Greek government planned
to call for an European conference to discuss the issue. He added
that Portugal's debt is sustainable.
Portugal exited a 78 billion euros ($88.6 billion) bailout
program in May last year after imposing three years of austerity
that sank the economy and increased unemployment. The country is
now growing again and unemployment is falling, but the debt level
is still high, above 125% of gross domestic product.
Mr. Passos Coelho, who has always defended the reforms and
public service cuts that highly indebted countries have made to
make their finances sustainable, said Portugal, along with Ireland
and Spain, has done its homework and therefore wouldn't be willing
to scare off investors with debt-restructuring talks.
"These countries have high debt, but they are sustainable," he
said.
Portugal will hold elections in the second half of the year. Mr.
Passos Coelho's Social Democratic Party is placed second in current
opinion polls, behind the Socialist Party.
While the Portuguese Socialists are in favor of deficit controls
and in fulfilling commitments with lenders, the party has called
for an end to the eurozone's age of austerity. Earlier this week
the party's leader, Antonio Costa, said the result of the Greek
elections, which put left-wing Syriza in power, "is a sign of
change in the political orientation of Europe, of how austerity
policies have reached a limit and of the necessity of new
policies."
Write to Patricia Kowsmann at patricia.kowsmann@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires