The sector had total debts of €235bn in June, the president of the National Association of Pharmacies João Cordeiro said, blaming the crisis in part on recent government-ordered cuts in the retail price of medicines.

Newspaper Sol reported that the Ministry of Finance presented a programme to cut state expenditure in 2013 as part of the efforts to avoid resorting to more austerity measures.

This is the sixth such meeting between Prime Minister Passos Coelho and Socialist Party leader Seguro since July 2011, but the agenda was not made public.

The government “knows there are several investors interested in this privatization process,” said Maria Luís Albuquerque, secretary of state for treasury and finance, before adding that the formal proposal stage had not yet been opened.

“The programme is going well, whatever they say,” said the government’s senior privatisation consultant António Borges in a speech.

Overall, trade between the two countries in the period was up 5.2% at US$2.3m (€1.8bn), making Portugal China’s third most important trading partner among Portuguese-speaking nations, after Brazil and Angola.

Newspaper Diário Económico has disclosed that the Ministry of Finance has already informed the troika’s quarterly mission to Lisbon that Portugal is €1.2bn short to comply with the 2012 deficit target, anticipating a 5.3% deficit for this year.

With Portugal’s traditional partners in Europe in recession, Deputy Minister Miguel Relvas said that business must look elsewhere to make the most of its investments in new technology and machinery.

The programme of his one-day visit includes a meeting with Prime Minister José Maria Neves and Foreign Minister Jorge Borges.