Economy’s indebtedness shrinks two billion euros in September after the record in August
The indebtedness of public administrations, companies and families has decreased by two billion euros in September after it reached a peak in August, with the deleveraging of the public sector.
The economy’s indebtedness — public administrations, companies and families, excluding banks — has relieved in September after it struck a record in the previous month. It decreased more than two billion euros to 721.1 billion euros, according to data from the Bank of Portugal. This evolution was mainly influenced by the deleveraging of the public sector. In the end of September, Portugal had a 378.8% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The indebtedness of the Portuguese economy had been rising for months on end, but it decreased again in September, in nominal terms, by 2.1 billion euros, after reaching the record value of 723.2 billion euros in August.
This time, the contribution came (almost exclusively) from the public sector: the debt from public administrations fell by two billion euros in September, and an even more sharp decrease is expected in October and November, after the plunge of the public debt with the payment of the six billion euros’ line mid October, and also from the early reimbursements to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The private sector also helped deleveraging the economy in September, according to the Bank of Portugal in this Wednesday’s press release, with indebtedness falling around 100 million euros to a total of 403.9 billion euros.
According to the Portuguese central bank’s data, the economy’s indebtedness corresponded to 378.8% of the Portuguese GDP in the end of September, almost five points lower than June’s level of indebtedness. This is the lowest level since the second quarter of 2011, an evolution that can be justified with the nominal decrease of debt, as well as the improvement in the 2017 Portuguese economy.
