Portugal's efforts to climb out of its economic crisis suffered a double setback yesterday as its credit rating was downgraded to junk status and a major strike gave voice to broad public outrage over austerity measures that have squeezed living standards.
Portugal's deepening plight underlined Europe's difficulties in finding a way out of the continent's government debt crisis which has shown alarming signs of spreading to bigger nations, most notably Italy.
The strike, called by Portugal's two largest trade union confederations and representing more than 1 million mostly blue-collar workers, largely centred on the transport sector.
