I am struck by the fact that the Portuguese government has slashed the debt-heavy country’s budget deficit to its lowest level in more than 40 years, despite warnings that its anti-austerity policies could spell financial disaster. Some other eurozone countries expressed alarm when the centre-left Socialist government, with the support of the Communist party and Left Bloc, took power in 2015 on an anti-austerity platform. Portugal needed a €78bn bailout in 2011, after recording a deficit of more than 11% the previous year and eurozone officials feared it could go into another debt spiral under the Socialists.

However, the government’s budget last year cut taxes and restored civil servants’ salaries, eased a surtax on employees’ incomes and breathed new life into the welfare system. So, while we pursue a remorseless austerity agenda in the UK (Cuts to NHS and social care have led to more deaths, 17 February), what Portugal has demonstrated, despite concerns over its economic policies, is that there is another way. Rather than blindly following an austerity agenda, the example set by Portugal is something we in the UK would be well-advised to take note of.

Alex Orr

Edinburgh

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