LISBON, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's public debt rose by 400 million euros in November last year, compared to the previous month, reaching a new record of 251.48 billion euros, according to the data released by the Bank of Portugal on Wednesday.
The Portugal's central bank said that loans and debt emissions essentially contributed to the increase in the month.
However, Portugal's public debt is expected to be lower in December as Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno announced on Dec. 10 that Portugal repaid remaining 4.7 billion euros of loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after early repayments.
The minister also said that the government maintains the objectives for 2018 and 2019 to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio to 121.2 percent and 118.5 percent, respectively.
Portugal is expected to pay all the loans to IMF by 2024 after it signed a 78-billion-euro bailout agreement with the European Union, the IMF and the European Central Bank in May 2011. The debt-ridden country made a clean exit from the bailout program after three years of harsh austerity measures.
Portugal has been on the track of slow economic recovery since 2014 with considerable drop in unemployment rate. (1 euro = 1.13 U.S. dollars)
