Portugal pays all its debt to the IMF later this year

The Prime Minister announced Thursday that Portugal would pay all of its debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by the end of the year, in a speech in which he stressed the importance of reducing expenses for the future. In total, there is 4.6 billion euros of loan.

"With the same determination with which we have governed and this allows me today to announce that we will pay the entire debt to the IMF until the end of this year, with all the sense that this page is turning, "said António Costa, at the Assembly of the Republic. , moments before the final final vote of the state budget for 2019.

In front of the deputies, the head of the executive defended the thesis that the budget government intended to build a future "first of all, to reinforce the sustainability, to continue on the way of the reduction of the public debt, the expenses and the improvement of the financial balance. " of social security ".

The early repayment to the IMF has already allowed Portugal to save several million euros of interest, only because the interest rate applied by the IMF is much higher than the rate of interest. market. The rate charged by the IMF is 4.4% with an average maturity of around 5 years, while Portugal is looking for a 10-year debt at 1.85%.