Meanwhile, in Portugal it emerged on Tuesday that the centre-left government was pursuing policies that could take four years to bring the country's budget deficit below the European Union's limit of 3 per cent of GDP. Growing divergences in the eurozone were described last weekend as “seriously worrying” by Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg chairman of the eurogroup, and they are causing concern at the European Central Bank. The worsening outlook in the two countries will rekindle the debate about whether they should have joined the the single currency in 1999.