Portugal goes to the polls

Portuguese voters are choosing a new government today, one that will be forced to impose grinding austerity measures as part of a €78bn bailout deal expected to pitch the country into a two-year recession.

Polls indicate the opposition Social Democratic Party will unseat the ruling Socialists, but whichever party wins will face the enormous task of trying to nurse the debt-wracked country back to financial health.

The winner in Portugal will inherit a record jobless rate of 12.6% and an expected economic contraction of 4% over the next two years in what is already one of Europe’s poorest countries.