Portuguese deficit for 2010 raised

Portugal’s budget deficit for 2010 was revised upwards to 9.1 percent of gross domestic product against 8.6 percent announced earlier, the national statistical institute said Saturday.

The body informed Eurostat, the European statistical office charged with setting strict rules for financial accounting by governments, that the revision was “due to higher financing needs and public administration debt of of 0.5 and 0.6 percent of GDP, respectively.”

The country’s public debt was also raised to 93 percent of GDP from 92.4 percent, touching nearly 160.4 billion euros ($233.3 billion).

Officials from the European Union and the IMF have been holding crisis talks with political and business leaders since this week to assess the state of public finances in Portugal, which is at risk of debt default in about eight weeks’ time.

The talks are part of an international rescue plan for Portugal and worth an estimated 80 billion euros ($114 billion).

Lisbon has to have the package in place by June 15 when it has to repay nearly 5.0 billion euros ($7.3 billion) in maturing debt.