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Eurogroup chief resigns as Portuguese finance minister

Mario Centeno, the head of the Eurogroup, has stepped down as Portugal’s finance minister, his country’s presidency said on Tuesday.

Centeno has headed the Eurogroup, a framework for meetings of eurozone finance ministers, since December 2017.

Centeno will formally announce his resignation from the Eurogroup during a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Thursday, a European source said.

His Eurogroup term was to end next month, and he will not be able to seek another.

The election of a new Eurogroup chief is likely to follow in the coming weeks.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that Centeno had “done a very successful job”, including with by contributing to “a whole series of advances” in the European stability mechanism and the banking and capital markets union.

As for his choice of successor, Scholz said “this is not a time for speculation”.

“But I can tell you that I and the German government have a clear vision,” he added.

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