PM wants to attract Arabs to the Portuguese debt
After Mário Centeno acknowledged a debt issuance in Chinese currency, now it was the prime minister who emphasized the need to diversify the geographic origin of Portugal's creditors.
The Portuguese PM considered this Monday the importance of diversifying the Portuguese debt creditors in reducing interests charges and placed Arab investors in the front line of the “active management” goals for the Portuguese sovereign debt.
António Costa spoke to journalists in Doha, amid his official one-day visit to Qatar, after a lunch offered by his counterpart Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani. When asked about the presence of Cristina Casalinho, the head of the Portuguese Treasury and Debt Management Agency (IGCP), the PM stated the Portuguese executive is “strongly betting on a reduction in charges concerning debt”; searching for new investors is one of the possibilities.
"We are here [in Qatar] working with investors from the Arab world in that perspective. (…) We have been trying to diversify our creditors, in order to achieve better market conditions.”
As for debt management, the prime minister mentioned in particular that “Portugal is making an effort in reducing its debt to the IMF [International Monetary Fund], which has very high interest rates”. According to António Costa, the best way for Portugal to “reduce the costs of debt for the day-to-day life of the Portuguese and to free resources to where it is necessary to invest means there needs to be an active debt management“.
