The Portuguese treasury successfully auctioned €1.5bn in six- and 18- month bonds Wednesday, 4 April, at yields of 2.9% and 5.53%, respectively, officials said.

In a related development, Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, said in an interview with a Finnish TV network that the bloc should be “prepared” to furnish Portugal with “some kind of bridge” when it begins returning fully to financial markets late next year.

Rehn stressed that he did not foresee Lisbon needing a second bailout programme like Greece, which he described as a “special case”.

Portugal has repeatedly said it will seek neither “more time nor more money” to fulfil its three-year, €78bn financial rescue programme that was inked 11 months ago with the EU and IMF.