The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed Portugal's 11th evaluation. After hammering out a new credit package, the IMF is ready to release 851 million euros (1.18 billion U.S. dollars) in loan funds to Portugal which has proved itself as a reliable borrower. The special board of the largest international credit provider gave Portugal green light because "the short-term macroeconomic outlook (in Portugal) has continued to improve and the program is on track, underpinned by a sizable budgetary over-performance in 2013," the IMF reported in a statement. So, the IMF officials seem to be quite content with Portugal’s implementation of the austerity program. Besides, the statement says, "the authorities remain committed to fiscal discipline and have fully specified the measures necessary to achieve the 2015 fiscal target." Recently, Portugal has wound up the bailout program tailored for three years and estimated at €25.68 billion. "Portugal, however, still needs to address important challenges, as large financing needs leave the country susceptible to market volatility, and remaining bottlenecks to growth and competitiveness risk delaying the necessary balancing of the economy," the statement said. International monitors highlight that both the EU and IMF being Portugal’s lenders hope that Lisbon will not need new credit packages later on. So, they expect the Portuguese 3-year austerity program to yield good results. Meanwhile, the two political parties the government consists of pursue exactly the same aim and claim that the solvency has been recovered. Like Ireland, Portugal has accumulated the fund amounting to €15 billion before it exits its bailout program in June as scheduled. This fund is supposed to cushion the Portuguese economy from turbulence on financial markets during 2014.
