The President of the Republic opined this Monday (5th) that the amendment to the terms of savings bonds constitutes an “implicit appeal to the bank” to offer more interest on deposits.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke to journalists in Cape Town, South Africa, while meeting with Portuguese and Portuguese descendants at the Associação Portuguesa do Cabo da Boa Esperança.
According to the Head of State, “the Portuguese Republic, that is, the Portuguese State, has suspended a current broadcast in order to replace it with another for reasons of a national nature, but also for reasons related to the fact that there is a sense of a move , a transfer of amounts from deposits to postal savings certificates”.
When asked if he believes the government wanted to help the bank by suspending a series of savings bonds and launching another with a lower interest rate, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa replied: “No, I think in the end it drew attention to an existing problem, but that is actually a good reason for an appeal to the bank”.
Given the “attitude of the Portuguese, eventually shifting from deposits to savings bonds”, he says, this is “a wake-up call for the banks, for the banks to realize that they have to make an effort to get the remuneration of deposits”.
Coincidentally, the State, for national reasons, but which turned out to be objective reasons that also make a kind of implicit appeal to the bank, namely to immediately replace more favorable terms with others that are less favourable, then increase in the course of the time,” he added.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa once again defended that “the bank must help by creating more favorable interest conditions for so many families who want to know where to invest their money”, taking into account “what is happening at the European level”.
The head of state arrived in South Africa today, where he will stay until Friday, for an official visit and to celebrate Portugal Day.
Source: DN
