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Portugal's Communist Party calls for debt to be renegotiated

Xinhua, May 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Portugal should have its debt renegotiated, the country's opposition Communist Party defended on Tuesday, according to Portuguese Lusa News Agency.

The Communist party said that at least half of the country's commitments with the troika -- the European Central Bank (ECB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission (EC) should be written off.

The Communist party also defends state control of airline TAP and other companies, as the right-wing coalition plans to sell shares of state-owned companies to reduce its high debt, currently at over 130 percent of GDP.

The Communist Party's proposals are part of the party's election program, which will be released on July 7 before the general elections which are expected to take place in October.

The promises were presented on Tuesday the the University of Lisbon by the Communist Party's Secretary-General Jeronimo de Sousa.

Portugal signed a 78-billion-euro (about 85 billion U.S. dollars) bailout with the troika in 2011 and is striving to reach a growth target of 1.6 percent this year, after 0.9 percent growth in 2014.

The country has been praised for its commitment to the bailout program which it completed last year as the economy shows signs of improving.

The Portuguese economy expanded in the first quarter of 2015, growing 1.4 percent between January and March as exports accelerated. Endit