Moody’s Investors Service Vice-president Evan Wohlmann has said he expects his agency to raise its rating for Portuguese sovereign debt to investment grade in a couple of months, shadowing the other main rating agencies, Xinhua reports.

The Chinese state-run news agency quotes Mr Wohlmann as saying so at a banking conference is Lisbon this week.

Mr Wohlmann praised the Portuguese government for reducing its deficit, and said Portugal appeared to have entered a new cycle of lower borrowing costs.

The report says Moody’s is expected to raise its rating for Portuguese sovereign debt to investment grade on April 20.

Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings raised their ratings last year, Xinhua says.