Bond markets: Alberto Soares on Portugal’s pressure points

How do you feel about the progress you have made for your financing activity in the first quarter?

Our financing needs for the first quarter are relatively small, so our issuance plan for the present quarter isn’t too challenging, even in these market conditions. The first OT auction of February 11 was quite well received by the market and with the new OT 2019 (€4 billion issued after a two-week hiatus at the end of February), the huge majority of our financing needs to be covered during the first quarter by medium-term and long-term instruments will be done.

Other nations have responded to burgeoning deficits by shifting from auctions to more syndicated sales – what are your plans?

Even considering the potential additional needs derived from the government rescue plans and a small increase of the revised budget deficits, our financing needs for 2009 won’t be much different from what they were in 2008 (due to a more favourable redemption profile this year), so we are not planning to introduce significant changes on the structure of issuance, namely the mix of auctions/syndicates.