The International Monetary Fund has approved a €26bn loan to Portugal as part of an EU bailout of the struggling eurozone country.
In a statement the IMF said €6.1bn would be disbursed immediately to ease investor concerns over Portugal's debt crisis.
The funding is part of a previously agreed €78 bn EU/IMF bailout package designed to support the Portuguese economy.
‘The financing package is designed to allow Portugal some breathing space from borrowing in the markets while it demonstrates implementation of the policy steps needed to get the economy back on track,’ a statement by the IMF said.
The money comes ith the condition that Lisbon embarks on a major raft of public sell-offs.
Portgual becomes the third eurozone country in a year to receive a multi-billion-euro EU-IMF bailout, after Greece and Ireland.
The loan the IMF executive board approved Friday is an Extended Fund Facility, aimed at supporting the Portuguese authorities' economic adjustment and growth program, the IMF said.
‘The Portuguese authorities have put forward a program that is economically well-balanced and has growth and job creation at its center,’ IMF acting managing director John Lipsky said in the statement.
