Headlines

Portugal plans to avoid the threat of needing another bailout by making another 4.8 billion euros ($6.3 billion) in cuts over the next three years, with measures including raising the retirement age by one year to 66 and laying off around 30,000 government workers, the prime minister said Friday, the Associated Press reported. Pedro Passos Coelho announced the proposals in a prime-time televised address to the nation. Portugal received a 78 billion euro rescue in 2011 after overspending, heavy debts and weak growth left it close to bankruptcy amid the eurozone's financial crisis.

Italy is likely to join the elite club of euro-zone countries not subject to fiscal sanctions, but Rome has no room to loosen its purse strings to boost economic growth, international officials said on Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Italy brought its budget deficit to 3% of gross domestic product last year, which makes it likely that Rome will exit the European Union's strictures on its policy as long as it can show how the achievement is sustainable, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said in Brussels after meeting with new Prime Minister Enrico Letta.

A Lithuanian court began bankruptcy proceedings against Ukio Bankas AB at the request of the central bank, which shut the Kaunas-based lender in February because of risky loans to related parties, Bloomberg reported. Kaunas District Court today also issued a decree naming the firm Valnetas UAB as Ukio’s bankruptcy administrator, the court said on its website. The decisions may be appealed within 10 days, according to the statement. Ukio was Lithuania’s fourth-largest bank by deposits when it was closed.

Tax havens such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands will work more closely with Britain and other European countries to fight tax evasion, British finance minister George Osborne said Thursday, the Irish Times reported. With governments in most advanced economies short of tax revenue after the financial crisis, pressure has been growing on small territories with big banking sectors to lift bank secrecy and do more to combat tax dodging and money laundering.

Throughout Europe's debt crisis, northern European leaders have often said they will not stand for taxpayers having to fork out for other countries' problems, and the notion of "taxpayer-funded bailouts" has taken root, Reuters reported in an analysis. Yet despite three-and-a-half years of debt and banking turmoil, with bailouts totalling more than 400 billion euros, northern euro zone taxpayers have not actually lost a cent.

The Insolvency Service of Ireland has confirmed that a VAT rate of 23% will be applied to the fees paid to insolvency practitioners, RTÉ News reported. The service, which will regulate the work of Personal Insolvency Practitioners (PIPS), was established in March. The Independent Mortgage Advisers Federation has criticised the application of VAT, saying it will make the insolvency process more expensive. "This will cause concern for both debtors and creditors," said Michael Dowling. Mr Dowling said: "Ultimately, this is going to impact on the cost on the process.

Debt-laden SolarWorld is close to securing financial backing from a Qatari investor, its chief executive said on Thursday, the second major move in a week in its efforts to get back on its feet. "We will publish the size of the potential stake at the extraordinary general meeting," Frank Asbeck, nicknamed the "sun king" by solar industry media, told Reuters on Thursday, declining to name the investor.

Suntech Power Holdings Co., the Chinese solar company with its main unit in bankruptcy proceedings, said the subsidiary will meet with creditors earlier than anticipated as it reported a 48 percent drop in revenue last year, Bloomberg reported. Wuxi Suntech will meet its creditors in Wuxi on May 22 as a court in the Chinese city considers how to restructure its debts, the company said today in a statement. Suntech said it was delaying its full-year results after reporting $1.63 billion in preliminary revenue.

France and Italy presented a united front Wednesday on the eurozone debt crisis amid deepening divisions over belt-tightening policies in the European Union as some countries reach breaking point, Agence France-Presse reported. French President Francois Hollande met Italy's brand new Prime Minister Enrico Letta, in Paris only days after he took office, and warned that austerity alone was "no longer enough", stressing the need for a focus on growth.

Greece's government on Wednesday accepted a €652 million ($858.6 million) bid for state gambling company OPAP, marking the first significant asset sale in the country's long-delayed privatization program, The Wall Street Journal reported. Czech-led private-equity consortium Emma Delta won the bid for the acquisition of a 33% stake in OPAP, Greece's privatization agency said, after improving its earlier bid by €30 million to meet the government's minimum target price.