[新聞] Down goes another one
標題: Down goes another one
ANOTHER domino has fallen in the eurozone debt crisis. After Greece and
Ireland, Portugal has become the third debt-laden economy on Europe’s
periphery to request a financial rescue.
European Union leaders have breathed a sigh of relief. Olli Rehn, the EU’s
top economic official, said it was a “responsible step for securing the
financial stability of the euro zone”. José Manuel Barroso, a former
Portuguese prime minister who is now president of the European Commission,
said the request would be “processed in the swiftest possible manner”.
But Portugal, facing years of austerity and low growth, may not be inclined
to join in the general rejoicing. Spain, lacking the firewall that Portugal
had previously provided, could be feeling distinctly uneasy.
Markets have so far given Spain the benefit of the doubt, appreciating
decisive deficit-cutting measures implemented by José Luis Rodríguez
Zapatero, the country’s Socialist prime minister. But investors may grow
more sceptical when they begin to examine Spain’s troubled savings banks
more carefully, noting that the government also runs a bigger budget deficit
than Portugal.
José Sócrates, Portugal’s outgoing prime minister, who belligerently
resisted a bail-out for almost a year, blamed his eventual capitulation on
the centre-right Social Democrats (PSD), the main opposition party. By
refusing to support the minority Socialist government’s fourth austerity
package, he said, the PSD had precipitated a political crisis that forced him
to resign on March 23rd, triggering an early election on June 5th.
Portugal and its banks had since seen their credit ratings downgraded to “
dangerous” levels, Mr Sócrates said. The country’s borrowing costs soared
to successive euro-era highs for 11 consecutive days. Shortly before he
announced in a brief televised address on Wednesday night that he had asked
the EU for help, Portugal had been forced to pay what analysts said was a “
prohibitive” interest rate of 5.9% to raise €1 billion ($1.43 billion) in
one-year debt.
Pedro Passos Coelho, the PSD leader and favourite in the polls to become the
next prime minister, said the request for aid had come too late, but that he
would support it nevertheless.
The outgoing government has not specified how much or what type of aid it has
requested. But it is unlikely, yet, to be a full Greek- or Irish-style
bail-out agreement supported by the European Financial Stability Facility and
the IMF.
Only the new government chosen in the election will have the authority to
negotiate a “more substantial” aid package of that nature, according to Mr
Passos Coelho. In the meantime, Mr Sócrates is expected to negotiate some
form of interim aid that will see Portugal past two big financing hurdles on
April 15th and June 15th, when it has to pay a total of €12 billion in bond
redemptions and interest payments.
Mr Sócrates has thrown in the towel, but Portugal knows from the example of
Greece and Ireland that its problems are far from over. João Leite, head of
investment at Portugal’s Banco Carregosa, said the request for aid was
unlikely to lead to any significant reduction in the country’s long-term
debt yields.
More importantly for voters, the austerity measures that Europe’s fiscally
conservative governments will demand as a condition for aid can be expected
to bite much harder than those Mr Sócrates pushed through. On top of all
this, the Portuguese will have to endure two months of election campaigning
by politicians whose credibility with many voters has fallen as low as the
country’s credit standing in bond markets.
新聞來源: (須有正確連結)
http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2011/04/europes_debt_crisis
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