The Troika today commented that actual fiscal adjustments in Portugal have been ‘very small’ and the heads of the Troika mission are not happy with the cuts that the Government has managed to achieve.
The message is that the changes have been very small and, therefore, austerity is to continue.
The Bloc Esquerda’s Mariana Mortágua reported that the head of the IMF mission was not happy with Portugal’s progress, “It was said by the representative of the IMF that fiscal adjustment in Portugal was "very small," these are his words. Therefore, the fiscal adjustment programme is to continue and we can expect more austerity and further cuts in state spending in the coming years."
For the Troika "the adjustment of the economy, and wage flexibility of the economy is not enough, the Troika policy in the short term was to lower wages, and this has been achieved by destroying the labour laws and lowering average wages," observed Mortágua.
The bloquista MP said that the ECB representative, Rasmus Ruffer, was asked about the role of the banks and the state. The answer was "you can expect the ECB to give more money, more power and more confidence to Portugal’s banks to be banks and to manage the resources of the economy and let them decide whom they finance and on what terms."
This confirms the left Bloc’s suspicion that the whole Troika deal in Portugal is to ensure the survival, often against market forces, of a banking system that led the world into chaos in the first place.
The Bloc concludes, "this only confirms our position: these Troika measures are just bailouts for the banks and not to rescue the economy. They have no other strategy for the Portuguese economy, just continued impoverishment through austerity measures."
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