It may have been a good try, but frontier staff working for the Portuguese border and immigration control police (SEF – Serviços de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras) failed to stop International Monetary Fund (IMF) boss Subir Lall from entering the country to oversee Portugal’s 12th and final evaluation of the three-year-adjustment programme.
Arriving early for the task, the Indian-born doctor of economics was embarrassed to discover that his United Nations passport was not sufficient to allow him free access into the EU member state he had come to assess. He needed a visa – and the one organised by his team was only due to start the following day. Thus Lall, chief of the IMF mission for Portugal since July last year, was held up for “up to 40 minutes” as SEF set about organising the paperwork for a temporary visa to cover the shortfall.
Talking to Correio da Manhã, a spokesman for SEF said the episode of “frontier control and visa emission went according to normal practice” and that, in fact, last year SEF had to issue a total of 6,994 “short-term” visas to cover similar situations, although none of these involved economists flying in to determine the financial sustainability – or otherwise – of the country.
Once free of border bureaucracy, Lall wasted no time in rolling up his sleeves and getting down to what he does best.
Discussing the troika’s report on Portugal’s 11th evaluation, he praised the government for all its efforts in reducing public debt but said there were still significant risks that reforms were unsustainable.
Among the risks are doubts that Portugal can maintain its current level of exports.
“Now is not the time for complacency,” Lall warned, stressing that one way of becoming more competitive is to reduce the very high rents charged throughout the country.
By reducing rents, he explained, Portugal could transform into a “dynamic and exporting” nation.
It is this theme, as well as other blocks the troika see affecting economic recovery that Lall and others will be discussing with the government over the next few days.
Meantime, few are under any illusions that the politics of austerity are not here to stay.
Said the Socialist party’s Eurico Brilhante Dias after an early morning meeting with the troika on Tuesday (April 22): “The PS is certain: the financial adjustment program may be formally coming to an end, but the politics of austerity will continue. The government will continue to negotiate more cuts with the troika.”
Pensions, particularly, are due to come in for further scrutiny, reports CM.
