IMF approves €657 million bailout tranche for Portugal
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the seventh tranche of Portugal’s bailout Wednesday and gave the country more time to meet its budget-cutting goals. The IMF will disburse the next tranche worth €657 million after the successful review of a bailout program that started in 2011. Meanwhile, the fund eased conditions, allowing Portugal to lower its budget deficit to 3% of GDP by 2015 from 6.4% in 2012, instead of by 2014. “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 wrote in a statement.
With Chinese markets back in business after a 5 day weekend closed over holidays, local share markets were dumped with Nikkei index leading the way lower losing at one point more than -6%. USD posted fresh 4-month lows at 80.66 DXY with USD/JPY printing fresh 2-month lows at 94.36, and EUR/USD 3-month highs above 1.3360. Gold and Oil showed little changes on the move. Australian job market surprised to the upside adding 1.1k more jobs to the economy when -10k were expected, making AUD/USD dip below the 0.9450 level. RBNZ left interest rates unchanged at 2.5%, with NZD/USD hanging around the 0.79 figure.-FXstreet.com