Portugal wants to make an additional early payment of one billion euros to IMF

  • ECO News
  • 5 September 2017

The goal is to have around 7.4 billion euros in a financial cushion by the end of 2017, to be able to increase the early repayments to the IMF next year.

The 2018 State Budget will anticipate an even higher early repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) than what was foreseen — specifically, it will make an extra one billion euros’ repayment, because it will have amounted more money in the end of the year than what was initially anticipated, discloses the Portuguese newspaper DN / Dinheiro Vivo.

This financial cushion, which should reach 7.4 billion euros in deposits in the end of 2017, will allow the 2018 State Budget to pay more to the IMF, according to the Portuguese Debt Management Agency (IGCP).

The Portuguese Government predicts, therefore, a five billion euros’ amortization of their debt to IMF, an additional one billion euros than what was foreseen. These early debt payments are partly a result of higher interests IMF is charging, in comparison to other creditors Portugal has within the financial aid programme (namely European authorities).

Portugal has made all the reimbursements scheduled for 2017, including the August’s reimbursement of 795 million euros. IGCP’s numbers show that “the percentage of IMF’s initial loan already paid increased to 63%”. The Portuguese secretary of state Assistant and of Finance Ricardo Mourinho Félix explained that the Government’s idea is “to move forward with this strategy”.