Euro bailout terms will see Portugal pay up to six percent
Rate is higher than Greece's 3.5 percent but in line with Irish repayment terms
Portugal will pay an interest rate of between 5.5 and six percent on the European Union's contribution to the 78-billion-euro bailout loan, the European commissioner for economic affairs, Olli Rehn, said Tuesday.
The Commission on Tuesday approved the bailout package, which is expected to run for three years, and envisages Portugal returning to the sovereign debt market before the end of the program. Greece is paying 3.5 percent on the first three years of its emergency funding package, and Ireland an average of 5.8 percent.
"The interest rate is calculated according to the formula that was agreed some time ago in the Eurogroup, which means that we will follow the IMF pricing policy and we will have a small premium," Rehn told a news conference in Strasbourg. "This will lead to the interest rate being somewhere in the scale of over 5.5 percent, but clearly below 6 percent."
