LISBON, Portugal — Just a few months ago, you could have raised chuckles from financial experts by suggesting this country’s finances might soon be healthy enough to break free from the straitjacket of austerity imposed by international creditors.
But on Sunday, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho announced just that.
He said next week Portugal will exit the program under which the European Union and International Monetary Fund have overseen economic policy. The creditors have kept a close watch to ensure compliance with the terms of a $108-billion bailout agreed in 2011 to keep the country solvent at the height of the euro zone debt crisis.