Portugal injects 2.5 bln euros in bank recapitalization plan

Portugal's state-owned Caixa Geral de Depositos, one of the largest banks in the country, received an injection of 2.5 billion euros in state funds in the second phase of the country's recapitalization plan, the Portuguese ministry of finance revealed on Thursday in an official statement.

In the first phase of the plan, a capital increase of 1.445 billion euros was carried out, according to the statement.

Portugal agreed on the recapitalization with the European Commission last year, after two bank rescues in 2014 and 2016.

After months of negotiation with Brussels, which aims to exclude the bank recapitalization from state aid, the European Commission said earlier this month that it had cleared a 3.9 billion-euro rescue, which would not be counted as state aid.

The Portuguese authorities have recently said that the country will exit the European Union's excessive deficit procedure, although the authorities have yet to assess the impact of the recapitalization of bank Caixa Geral de Depositos.

According to the country's statistics institute, Portuguese government deficit for 2016 was 2.1 percent of GDP, below the 2.5 percent target defined by Brussels. Endit