FRANKFURT (MNI) – The risk is high that Portugal will have to turn
to the international community for assistance, Finance Minister Fernando
Teixeira dos Santos told the Financial Times in a story released Monday
evening.
“The risk is high because we are not facing only a national or
country problem. It is the problems of Greece, Portugal and Ireland.
This is not a problem of only this country,” dos Santos told the
newspaper.
“This has to do with the Eurozone and the stability of the
Eurozone, and that is why contagion in this framework is more likely. It
is not because markets consider we have similar situations. They are
only similar in what concerns markets, but as I said they are very
different,” he emphasized.
The minister suggested that the contagion risk might be lower if
his country were not a member of the Eurozone.
“Markets look at these economies together because we are all in
this together in the Eurozone, but probably they could look different if
we were not in the eurozone. Suppose we were not in the eurozone, the
risk of the contagion could be lower.”
The country is, however, improving its public finances, he
insisted, according to the paper.
–Frankfurt bureau; +49-69-720142, frankfurt@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: MT$$$$,MGX$$$,M$X$$$,MFX$$$,M$$CR$]
