Portuguese president accepts Fin Min´s resignation

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Tuesday accepted Prime Minister Antonio Costa's decision to allow the resignation of Mario Centeno as minister of finance and to replace him with Secretary of State for the Budget Joao Leao, reported Xinhua.

According to a statement published on the website of the Portuguese Presidency, Rebelo de Sousa received from Costa "proposals for dismissal, at his request, from the Minister of State and Finance, professor Dr. Mario Centeno, and the appointment, in his place, of Professor Dr. Joao Leao."

Centeno's departure from the government was already taken for granted following his disagreement with the prime minister about the injection of 850 billion euros (960.75 billion U.S. dollars) of public funds into Portuguese lender Novo Banco last month, local media reported.

Centeno has also been Eurogroup president since Jan. 13, 2018.

On Tuesday, he said on Twitter that "My tenure as Eurogroup president will end on 13 July 2020. On Thursday, I will inform my Eurogroup colleagues of my decision not to seek a second mandate, as by 15 June I will step down as finance minister of Portugal."

Centeno, who is widely credited for the economic success of the country's previous Socialist Party-led government also headed by Costa, is the first minister to step down from the current administration, which took office late last year.

The new Finance Minister, Joao Leao, holds a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a degree in economics and a Master's degree in economics from the New University of Lisbon.

Leao has also been a professor of economics at the University Institute of Lisbon since 2008, and has held several government positions, including secretary of state for the budget (between 2015 and 2019) and director of the Studies Office in the Ministry of Economy (2010 to 2014).

The new minister was also a member of the Economic and Social Council between 2010 and 2014 and of the Superior Statistical Council between 2010 and 2014. He integrated the Portuguese delegation in the Economic Policy Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2010 and 2012.

The current Assistant Secretary of State for Finance, Mourinho Felix, also left the government after being reported as a possible successor to Centeno.

The exchange will be made official in a ceremony on June 15.