The troika should recognise the efforts made by Portugal to rebalance its finances and adjust the country’s bailout conditions.

In May 2011 Portugal negotiated an IMF-EU bailout package of 78 billion euros, designed to help the country stabilise its finances. In return Portugal agreed to implement a number of reforms, with a target to reduce its budget deficit to 2.5 per cent by 2014. Paulo Trigo Pereira assesses the country’s progress over the last two years, and suggests some new measures to aid the recovery. He argues that the troika should consider decreasing the interest rates and extending maturity dates on its loans to Portugal.