Portugal 'will not need bailout'

Portugal’s finance minister said today that he does not expect his country will need a bailout to resolve its financial problems.

Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said in a radio interview that the government was taking steps to reduce the country’s high debt, which has worried markets and brought a potentially unsustainable surge in its borrowing costs.

“We have to be focused on doing all we can to avoid (a bailout),” he said on TSF radio.

He insisted that Portugal is still able to raise money on financial markets, even though its 10-year bond yields have recently reached euro-era records of around 7%.

He added that Europe was not doing enough to ensure the stability of the eurozone.