LISBON: The deal reached between the core shareholders and the Portuguese bank BPI represented “a sign of confidence” in the future of the economy by international investors, Prime Minister António Costa said. BPI bank deal generates confidence says PM Costa. He told journalists at a joint press conference held in Athens with his Greek peer Alexis Tsipras that he was “very satisfied and pleased that it has been possible for the BPI shareholders to find a solution that reinforces the stability of our financial system.”
BPI had announced on Sunday that an agreement had been reached between the bank and its core shareholders, the Catalan bank, CaixaBank and Santoro Finance, a holding of Isabel dos Santos, that would see the bank resolve its “situation of non-compliance towards major risk exposures,” in this case incurred through its Angola subsidiary.
In response to a question from a Greek journalist about why Portugal had exited its troika-backed assistance programme and Greece had not, the prime minister replied that Portugal had “scrupulously met all of the programme” before detailing the rise in national debt from 97 percent of GDP to 130 percent, extremely high unemployment and significant rises in national poverty levels as among the consequences.
Costa took the opportunity to condemn what he termed the “logic of uniquely neo-liberal thinking” with Tsipras then criticising the insistence on austerity “despite many of those responsible for these institutions recognising the errors and their negative consequences.” Both also agreed on the need for Europe to show solidarity over the refugee crisis and on praising Costa’s stated willingness for Portugal to take in an unspecified number of additional refugees.
