Portugal's deficit target too ambitious, says IMF

Portugal will be unable to bring down its deficit target to below 3 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a statement released on Tuesday.

The IMF said that Portugal's public deficit will reach 3.2 percent of GDP this year, though it revised its growth forecast upward from 1.2 percent to 1.5 percent.

The IMF mission chief Subir Lall also stressed the need for the country to implement "a deep reform of the state," in order to "improve the functioning of the public administration."

The IMF representatives arrived in Lisbon on March 5 to carry out its annual assessment of the Portuguese economy and on Tuesday released its preliminary conclusions.

The Portuguese government has insisted that the country can reach its deficit target of below 3 percent this year, with Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho insisting that the country must not slow down its pace of reforms.

Portugal signed a 78-billion-euro bailout fund in May 2011 with the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. Portugal exited its bailout program in May last year.

The IMF lent Portugal 26.9 billion euros, which carried a 3.7 percent tax rate and an average loan maturity of 7 years. The Portuguese government recently revealed it is planning to pay its 14- billion-euro IMF debt early to take advantage of low borrowing costs for European peripheral governments. Enditem