Centeno, who was speaking in a session of parliament's budget, finance and administrative modernisation committee, said that "the Republic's financing plan remains based on a reduction of indebtendness to the International Monetary Fund" and recalled that in the last two months of 2016 "payments of 2.5 billion euros were made" early to the IMF.

The minister also revealed that, of the amount that Portugal is already authorised by the IMF to pay off early, "there is still 1.7 billion euros to be used up" and added that "very shortly another part of the debt to the IMF will be amortised."

He pledged that "nothing was done that would mean a delay nor bring into question the financing of the Portuguese Republic", explaining that the early repayments were possible because the government has "channelled the state's cashflow gains" such as the funds transferred by Banco Comercial Português to pay off CoCos bonds (contingent convertible capital instruments) to amortise the IMF debt.

Centeno also cited the latest "extraordinary" results from treasury bill sales, earlier in the day.

The state debt management agency, the IGCP, said €1.250 billion in three- and 11-month bills were placed at yields even more negative than in the last comparable operations. Of the total, €1 billion of 11-month bills were placed at an average yield of -0.096% and €250 million of three-month bills at -0.219%.