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Porque isto é demasiado importante para passar despercebido e a nossa comunicação social anda ocupada com o Sr. Paulo Bento, n' Opinador fica a notícia que corre lá fora!

Urge repensar a nossa despesa pública! Isto não está lá muito porreiro, pá!

A notícia do Financial Times:

"Portugal passes debt auction hurdle

By David Oakley in London and Peter Wise in Lisbon

Published: September 22 2010 11:35 Last updated: September 22 2010 17:14


Investors demanded record high yields to buy Portuguese debt on Wednesday as Lisbon scaled down the amount of money it had hoped to borrow in bond markets amid persistent worries over the health of the country’s economy.

EDITOR’S CHOICE
Portugal vows to cut deficit - Sep-22.Relief at Ireland’s €1.5bn bond issues - Sep-21.Bond sale affirms investors’ faith in Spain - Sep-16.EU rescue fund rated triple A - Sep-20.Interactive: Sovereign debt levels by country - Jun-23.Portugal Special Report - Jun-28..Portugal issued €750m in four-year and 10-year bonds, at the low end of its targeted range, after debt managers had told investors they hoped to raise €1bn.

But demand for the bonds was strong as many investors were prepared to take the risk on the Portuguese economy in return for record high yields, which are nearly 4 percentage points more than German bunds for 10-year bonds.

Portugal and Ireland, which issued €1.5bn in bonds on Wednesday, are increasingly seen as the problem countries for the eurozone, apart from Greece, which is already reliant on emergency loans from the international community.

Lisbon had to pay 6.24 per cent to borrow €300m in 10-year bonds, a record high since the launch of the euro in 1999, and 4.69 per cent to borrow €450m in four-year bonds. The yields demanded were at about the levels Portugal would have to pay if it decided to borrow from the eurozone bail-out fund, the European Financial Stability Facility.

Richard Batty, investment director of strategy at Standard Life Investments, said: “This shows Portugal has a lot of problems. Portugal cannot go on paying higher and higher yields. It is not sustainable and makes it much harder for the country to reduce its budget deficit. Investors are only willing to take a chance on Portugal for very high returns.”

Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income at Evolution, said: “In a way the auction has been a success as the Portuguese have raised the money, but they are only able to do so at a very high cost and only because investors know that the European Central Bank is there to support the markets if necessary.”

The yields compared with rates of 5.31 per cent for the 10-year bonds at the last auction in August and 3.62 per cent for four-year bonds at the previous offering in July.

Both auctions were well subscribed, with the 10-year covered 4.9 times and the four-year covered 3.5 times. Debt managers, however, cut back what they had hoped to raise because of the high yields demanded by investors. Lisbon is already ahead in its fundraising schedule.

Investor concerns about Portugal centre on the government’s failure to implement reforms to turn round its stagnating economy. The financial markets have grown increasingly sceptical about the prospects of the country meeting its target of cutting the budget deficit from a record 9.4 per cent of gross domestic product in 2009 to 7.3 per cent this year. "