China offers to support Portugal but no debt pledge

Sunday, 07 November 2010 18:15

LISBON-Chinese President Hu Jintao wrapped up a visit to Portugal Sunday with pledges to support its battered economy, but he did not commit to purchasing Portuguese debt as was widely anticipated.
Hu and Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates inked a series of trade deals after holding talks, but there was no announcement of Beijing's willingness to buy up Portuguese debt, as it did last month for Greece.

"We are ready to support through concrete measures Portugal's efforts to reduce the impact of the international crisis," Hu said during a joint news conference.

Hu also repeated a pledge made on Saturday to see a doubling of bilateral trade by 2015. Portuguese lenders Millennium BCP and BPI signed deals with Bank of China, one of China's "Big Four" national banks, to identify investment opportunities in the world's second-largest economy, the Portuguese government said in a statement.-AFP

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