Abstract
This article maps the relationship between public banks and municipal water operators in Portugal. Multilateral public banks play a central role in financing the sector. However, access to public banking finance plays out unevenly across Portugal’s heterogenous water landscape. While the state-owned bulk system appears to face no shortage of finance, there is evidence of a financing crisis at the municipal level, where austerity and pressures to recover costs through tariffs serve as obstacles to bank borrowing. With a new public financial institution in the making, the article argues that new public–public financing relationships should be explored.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 3 |
Pages (from-to) | 711-732 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Water International |
Volume | 47 |
Issue number | 5 |
Publication status | Published - 6 Sep 2022 |
Keywords
- Water and sanitation
- Public banks
- European Investment Bank
- Neoliberalism
- Austerity
- Municipal economy