Portuguese workers are today staging what unions say is the country's biggest strike in protest against the debt-laden government's austerity measures that will cause wage cuts and more job losses.
Both public and private sector workers have joined the strike, which follows similar stoppages in other troubled euro economies such as Greece and France, as governments are forced into unpopular cost-cutting programmes.
More than 500 flights have been cancelled across the country, while major ports including Lisbon and Setubal are paralysed, unions say.
The strike, the first time in more than 20 years that private and public sector workers have come together, is also hitting banks, media and petrol deliveries.
Portugal's main opposition party said yesterday that it would not block the government's 2011 budget, paving the way for its adoption on Friday.
It aims to reduce the deficit from 7.3% of GDP to 4.6% next year in a bid to quell growing international unease over the state of its finances. The budget will achieve this through an array of spending cuts and tax rises, including public-sector wage cuts, worth €5 billion.
Portuguese bond yields rose to 6.636% from 6.523% yesterday amid growing concerns over the country's deficit-reduction efforts.
The government on Monday announced that spending had actually increased by 2.8% through October on a yearly comparison, raising the deficit to €11.9 billion.
Portugal's Prime Minister Jose Socrates has rejected suggestions that his country is next in line after Ireland to receive an European Union bailout, saying that Portugal did not need financial aid.
