In those days, central bank independence was not perceived as a crucial issue. The central bank shared with the Government the responsibility for key economic policy decisions, and implemented those decisions using the powers it had on the financial market and on banks.
Given the state of our public finances, the leverage available to us is restricted to the pace of public debt adjustment. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  Figure 2 Public debt – maturity profile  Source: Banco de Portugal.