Portugal and Ireland ask eurozone to extend rescue loan dates

Meanwhile credit rating agency Standard & Poor's said on Tuesday that it was maintaining its notation for Portugal at speculative investment grade mainly because of uncertainty about the outlook for growth.

When Greece's rescue program was revised last year it had the repayment dates of its loans pushed back, with eurozone officials saying at the time that Ireland and Portugal could also benefit.

Portuguese Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar made such a proposal at the meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Monday, which Ireland supported, Noonan said.

“We had the approval of the 17” eurozone ministers, he said.

They were expected to raise the subject at meeting of all 27 EU finance ministers on Tuesday, and could formally receive the green light in March.

The request comes as Ireland and Portugal strive to return to the medium- and long-term debt markets this year.

Gaspar was quoted by Portuguese media as saying the country had shown it was carrying out bailout conditions and that it was “ready to launch issues on the primary bond market.”

However he said the return to the sovereign debt market “is more difficult to the extent that the country faces a concentration of very big (repayment) maturities in 2014, 2015 and 2016.”

Therefore it was important for Portugal “to be able to count on the support of our European partners so as to dilute and defer these dates over time.”

In May 2011, Portugal obtained bailout loans of 78 million euros (US$104 million) from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund on condition that it apply a program of radical reforms and budget rigor to correct public deficits and debt and to raise the performance of the economy.

Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said on Friday that Portugal was at the point of overcoming its financial crisis.

His remarks followed success by Portugal last week with an issue of short-term debt bonds, after which the debt management agency said that if market conditions permitted, this year it would make its first issue of medium-term or long-term debt since the country was rescued.

But on Tuesday, S&P said that it was holding its notation for Portuguese long-term debt at “BB” and for short-term debt at “B” as announced a year ago and confirmed in August.

The agency said that the negative outlook, meaning that the agency could downgrade the notation further in the medium term, reflected risks arising from the weak outlook for growth.

The agency also noted that rulings due from the constitutional court on several measures in the budget for 2013 could compromise application of tough budget measures promised to creditors by the center-right government.

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