"Good news"? Four new facts about the Portuguese economy

The National Statistics Institute (INE) released new data on the Portuguese economy on Tuesday, with the Minister of State and Finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento , already stating that the "sharp" review of public debt is "good news" and "a sign of a prudent and responsible budgetary trajectory ".

However, there's more to the matter than just public debt, as there's also new data on the budget surplus and gross domestic product (GDP) . Here are four key points:

1 - After all, the public debt ratio was 93.6% in 2024 (below the estimated)

The public debt ratio was 93.6% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at the end of 2024, instead of the 94.9% calculated in March , according to the Excessive Deficit Procedure notification submitted to Brussels.

"The gross debt of the Public Administrations will have decreased to 93.6% of GDP (96.9% in the previous year)", reads the document released today by the National Statistics Institute (INE), the second notification.

Lusa | 11:55 - 23/09/2025

"The gross debt of Public Administrations will have decreased to 93.6% of GDP (96.9% in the previous year)," reads the document released on Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute.

This figure represents a revision of the results reported in the first notification of the Excessive Deficit Procedure released in March, which indicated that the public debt-to-GDP ratio had reached 94.9% in 2024, the lowest value since 2009 (87.6%) and below the State Budget (OE) forecast of 95.9%.

2 - Portugal records a budget surplus of 1.9% in the 2nd quarter

The Public Administration (PA) sector recorded a surplus of 1.9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of the year , reported the National Statistics Institute.

Considering quarterly values ​​and not the year ended in the quarter, the Public Administration balance in the 2nd quarter of 2025 reached 1,412 million euros, corresponding to 1.9% of GDP, the INE announced this Tuesday.

Beatriz Vasconcelos | 11:07 AM - September 23, 2025

"The balance of the AP in the second quarter of 2025 reached 1,412 million euros, corresponding to 1.9% of GDP, which compares with 2.5% in the same period of the previous year", reads the highlight of the statistics office, referring to the quarterly national accounts.

Revenue grew 4.6% year-on-year, while expenditure increased 6.3%. Among revenue, the most notable were increases in production and import taxes (6.6%) and social contributions (1.9%), while capital revenue grew 53%, mainly due to increased revenue from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP).

On the other hand, in expenditure, growth in employee compensation (7.7%), interest charges (1.9%), social security contributions (4.7%), and intermediate consumption (2.4%) stood out. The expenditure item related to subsidies decreased by 12.2%.

3 - 2024 surplus revised downwards

On the other hand, the 2024 general government surplus was revised downwards from 0.7% to 0.5% of GDP , according to the second notification of the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) published by the INE .

"According to the provisional results obtained in this exercise, Public Administrations (PA) had a positive balance of 1,451.4 million euros in 2024, which corresponded to 0.5% of GDP (1.3% in 2023)," the document reads.

The INE explains that these revisions "result from the incorporation of the information underlying the General State Account and fundamentally from the reprogramming of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), which aimed to extend the deadline for meeting the final target, with the objective of ensuring the efficient implementation of investments".

4 - INE revises GDP growth in 2024 from 1.9% to 2.1%

The INE also announced that the Portuguese economy grew 2.1% in 2024, above the 1.9% previously estimated, according to the annual national accounts released yesterday.

"Gross Domestic Product reached 289.4 billion euros in 2024, which represented nominal growth of 7.1%, after the 10.8% increase recorded in 2023 ", while in real terms, GDP increased by 2.1% in 2024, the document reads.

"Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached 289.4 billion euros in 2024, which represented nominal growth of 7.1%, after the 10.8% increase recorded in 2023", while in real terms, GDP increased by 2.1% in 2024, the document reads.

Lusa | 1:25 PM - 9/23/2025

Read Also: Public debt review is a "sign of a responsible budgetary trajectory"