ECB’s Nowotny Says Portugal in Much Better Shape Than Greece

European Central Bank council member Ewald Nowotny said Portugal is “in much better shape” than Greece and predictions by Pacific Investment Management Co. it may need more money are “extremely problematic.”

“I consider this announcement by an asset manager, who is also following his own interests, to be extremely problematic,” Nowotny wrote in a live online chat with Austria’s Der Standard newspaper today. “Portugal’s debt ratio and the development of its foreign trade are in much better shape than in Greece, even though risks do remain, of course.”