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Portuguese top official calls privatization program success

Xinhua, March 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Portuguese public companies in competition must be privatized to promote growth, a high-ranking official of the government said on Thursday, according to Portuguese Lusa News Agency.

Portugal is privatizing companies to reduce its debt load as part of a 78-billion-euro (85 billion U.S. dollars) bailout program the country signed in May 2011 with the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank when it was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Secretary of State to the Treasury Isabel Castelo Branco said during a press conference at the end of a cabinet meeting on Thursday that the country's privatization program had been a "success" and had enabled financial proceeds totalling 9 billion euros, when taking into account all the companies that were privatized since "the beginning of the legislation." Endit