IMF releases 1.5 bn euro loan tranche to Portugal

The International Monetary Fund released Wednesday a 1.5 billion euro ($1.9 billion) loan installment to Portugal, after a review of its progress under a bailout program. "The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund today completed the fifth review of Portugal's performance under an economic program" supported by a three-year loan of 28.2 billion euros, the IMF said in a brief statement. The Washington-based institution said it would publish its staff report on the fifth review of Portugal's program Thursday. In May 2011, Portugal was rescued from a threat of default with a combined IMF-European Union that totaled 78 billion euros. Under the rescue program which imposes spending cuts, tax increases and reforms to raise efficiency in the economy, Lisbon is supposed to have won back enough confidence to be able to refinance itself normally on private capital markets beginning next year. Portugal's debt stood at nearly 190 billion euros at the end of the first quarter of this year, representing about 112 percent of gross national product, according to data from the EU's statistical arm Eurostat.