Greece must take bitter pill like Portugal, economy minister says

By Axel Bugge & Sergio Goncalves

Portugal went through years of tough austerity which is now bearing fruit and Greece too must abide by its commitments to its single currency partners and creditors, Portugal's economy minister told the Reuters Euro Zone Summit.

Antonio Pires de Lima ruled out any kind of debt renegotiation for Greece, saying Athens had to play by the rules of the game established by euro members, especially considering the sacrifices made by fellow bailout country Portugal.

Greece's debt crisis flared again this month after the new leftist-led government said it would roll back reforms imposed under its bailout and cease cooperation with the troika of international lenders after years of harsh austerity. That has put it on a collision course with its creditors.

Pires de Lima said that since Lisbon had opted for a route "which was not the easiest one" to recover credibility and return to growth, "that is also our attitude to the situation in other countries.

"Portugal did everything that was necessary to remove the atmosphere of suspicion surrounding the country, removing all the shadows, all the clouds, all the doubts," he said in an interview late on Thursday.

At the height of Europe's debt crisis, many analysts compared Portugal to Greece, suggesting the country would not stomach the pain of deep spending cuts, the biggest tax hikes in living memory and the sharpest recession since the 1970s.

However, Portugal exited its three-year 78-billion-euro bailout from the euro zone and IMF last year, when its economy also grew for the first time since the crisis started in 2010.

A center-right government under Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho enacted deep spending cuts, economic reforms and...