Eurozone ministers said Portugal must make deeper budget cuts and privatise state firms in return for an 80 billion euro bailout the bloc wants to finalise by mid-May, just weeks before an election and state funding crunch. Portugal bowed to pressure from financial markets and its European partners this week and became the third eurozone country after Greece and Ireland to request financial help from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Finance ministers from the 17-nation single currency area met at a palace north of Budapest on Friday to discuss the details and timeline of a rescue, which has been complicated by political turmoil in the Iberian nation of 10.5 million.