Portuguese national debt
The Portuguese national debt, the public debt of Portugal, or the debt of the public administrations of Portugal, as any other government debt, is the financial amount the Portuguese State owes, externally and internally, due to its various financial commitments.Since the early 1990s, there were two main periods in which the country's debt registered strong growth. The first was at the beginning of the third millennium, i.e., from the year 2000 the Portuguese public debt began to grow in a way that many economists considered worrisome, and that in their opinion would contribute to create a structural crisis in the country. However, the big increase in the public debt, in parallel with the rest of Europe, was post-2008, after the international crisis of the Great Recession which began in 2008, that caused the sovereign debt crisis in the majority of European countries.
As the public debt presented as a % of Gross Domestic Product, it is actually presented as a ratio, as the division between the sovereign debt and the Portuguese GDP multiplied by 100 percent. Therefore, the debt increase after 2008 was also a result of GDP decrease due to economic recession.
In 2012 the Portuguese debt, at 129% of the GDP, was the second highest in relative terms in the European Union only after Greece. By the first semester of 2013, the Portuguese national debt increased to a record-high of 130% of the GDP, around 214.5 billion Euros or 293 billion US dollars. In June 2014, the public debt reached 134% of the GDP.
After 2014, when the Portuguese economy started recovering and with the end of Troika, the Portuguese debt gradually started decreasing. As of December 2023, it stood at 98.7% of the national GDP, the lowest level recorded since 2009. The Portuguese debt was still higher than the European Union average, and as of 2023 was the 6th highest in relative terms amongst Eu countries, after Greece, Italy, France, Spain and Belgium.
Share of debt in GDP
Government debt in share of GDP since 1974ImageSize = width:1600 height:210
PlotArea = width:1560 height:180 left:40 bottom:20
AlignBars = justify
Colors =
id:D value:green legend:Debt_
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:135
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:15 start:0
PlotData =
bar:% color:claret width:25 mark: align:center fontsize:S
bar:1974 color:D from:start till:17.4 text:17.4
bar:1975 color:D from:start till:21.2 text:21.2
bar:1976 color:D from:start till:26.2 text:26.2
bar:1977 color:D from:start till:29.9 text:29.9
bar:1978 color:D from:start till:32.7 text:32.7
bar:1979 color:D from:start till:34.8 text:34.8
bar:1980 color:D from:start till:30.3 text:30.3
bar:1981 color:D from:start till:37.6 text:37.6
bar:1982 color:D from:start till:41.2 text:41.2
bar:1983 color:D from:start till:45.0 text:45.0
bar:1984 color:D from:start till:47.6 text:47.6
bar:1985 color:D from:start till:54.8 text:54.8
bar:1986 color:D from:start till:56.5 text:56.5
bar:1987 color:D from:start till:61.6 text:61.6
bar:1988 color:D from:start till:60.9 text:60.9
bar:1989 color:D from:start till:58.5 text:58.5
bar:1990 color:D from:start till:55.5 text:55.5
bar:1991 color:D from:start till:57.8 text:57.8
bar:1992 color:D from:start till:52.0 text:52.0
bar:1993 color:D from:start till:57.5 text:57.5
bar:1994 color:D from:start till:59.9 text:59.9
bar:1995 color:D from:start till:62.2 text:62.2
bar:1996 color:D from:start till:63.3 text:63.3
bar:1997 color:D from:start till:58.7 text:58.7
bar:1998 color:D from:start till:55.6 text:55.6
bar:1999 color:D from:start till:55.4 text:55.4
bar:2000 color:D from:start till:54.2 text:54.2
bar:2001 color:D from:start till:57.4 text:57.4
bar:2002 color:D from:start till:60.0 text:60.0
bar:2003 color:D from:start till:63.9 text:63.9
bar:2004 color:D from:start till:67.1 text:67.1
bar:2005 color:D from:start till:72.2 text:72.2
bar:2006 color:D from:start till:73.7 text:73.7
bar:2007 color:D from:start till:72.7 text:72.7
bar:2008 color:D from:start till:75.5 text:75.5
bar:2009 color:D from:start till:87.6 text:87.6
bar:2010 color:D from:start till:99.9 text:99.9
bar:2011 color:D from:start till:114.0 text:114.0
bar:2012 color:D from:start till:128.6 text:128.6
bar:2013 color:D from:start till:130.8 text:130.8
bar:2014 color:D from:start till:132.5 text:132.5
bar:2015 color:D from:start till:131.0 text:131.0
bar:2016 color:D from:start till:131.2 text:131.2
bar:2017 color:D from:start till:126.0 text:126.0
bar:2018 color:D from:start till:121.1 text:121.1
bar:2019 color:D from:start till:116.1 text:116.1
bar:2020 color:D from:start till:134.1 text:134.1
bar:2021 color:D from:start till:123.9 text:123.9
bar:2022 color:D from:start till:111.2 text:111.2
bar:2023 color:D from:start till:96.9 text:96.9
bar:2024 color:D from:start till:93.6 text:93.6