"Painful" Portugal reforms getting results: Schaeuble and Gaspar

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble delivers a speech during the award ceremony of the M100 media prize in Potsdam, September 6, 2012.

BERLIN (Reuters) - The finance ministers of Germany and Portugal said after meeting in Berlin on Wednesday that Portugal's painful economic reforms were producing encouraging results, with competitiveness getting better and government spending now under control.

"The Portuguese economic adjustment is proving to be a demanding and painful process, calling for heavy sacrifices from the people, but the results are encouraging," Germany's Wolfgang Schaeuble and Portugal's Vitor Gaspar said in a joint statement.

"Competitiveness is improving, government expenditures are now under control and the structural budget deficit has declined significantly," the written statement said.

(Reporting by Stephen Brown)