Troika checks Portugal for more bailout cash

The so-called Troika of representatives from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund is back in Lisbon to check whether Portugal has done enough to get its next instalment of bailout money.

Portugal has admitted its accounts fell short of expectations in the first half of the year and is to ask for changes to it 78 billion euro rescue package.

The government still insists it will meet this year’s target agreed with its lenders.

Portugal’s economy is expected to contract sharply this year and next, only returning to growth in 2013 as the government enacts tough spending cuts and across-the-board tax hikes.

Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho has said he could not rule out having to reinforce his country’s aid programme if it was swept up in a market backwash should Greece default.

Coelho recently said his government could seek some “adjustments” to ensure “more adequate financing for the economy.”

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