No need for a bail out: Redux

Do you remember this in November?

the statement repeated that Ireland was ”fully funded until well into 2011” and it “has made no application for external support.”

Although Irish leaders have said the country needs no new cash until June, concerns about its finances have spread to other so-called “peripheral” EU economies, driving up yields on their government bonds.

But publicly Irish ministers reiterated that they were not in discussions with the EU and were determined to weather the storm. “We must show clearly that Ireland can stand alone and it’s determined to get out of the financial difficulties we are in,” Batt O’Keeffe, Irish enterprise minister, said on local radio.

Ireland was fine, little local difficulty etc and so on.

Now hear this from Portugal's Finance Minister,

Portugal has no plans to seek a bailout from the EU and IMF, and the government is doing everything possible to avoid doing so, Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said.

"We are seeking to avoid this possibility," Teixeira dos Santos told TSF radio when asked about a possible rescue.

Portugal is widely seen by economists as the country that is most likely to follow Greece and Ireland in seeking outside help with its finances to take it out of the firing line of the widening euro zone debt crisis.

Late on Tuesday, a Bank of Portugal board member was quoted as saying the country would leave behind its crisis more easily if it sought foreign financing.

But Teixeira dos Santos said the country was capable of continuing without a bailout, adding that the average interest rates it is still paying on its debt are relatively low, with only a small proportion being serviced at current higher borrowing costs.

"We are doing our work. clearly Europe is not doing its work to guarantee stability of the euro," he added.

Anybody spot the similarity?