Portugal’s economic indebtedness shrinks to 743.7 billion in January
Portugal's non-financial sector indebtedness decreased in January after six consecutive months of rising.
After reaching a record 745.77 billion euros at the end of last year, the Portuguese economy’s debt shrank at the start of 2021. It fell to 743.7 billion euros in January.
“In January 2021 non-financial sector indebtedness stood at 743.7 billion euros, of which 341.6 billion euros referred to the public sector and 402.0 billion euros to the private sector,” says the Bank of Portugal (BoP). It was a 2.1 billion decrease compared to the figure recorded in December 2020.
After the record reached at the end of last year, the decline in January is explained essentially by the drop in private sector indebtedness. There was a “0.9 billion euros decrease in public sector indebtedness and by the 1.2 billion euros decrease in private sector indebtedness,” the Central bank revealed.
This reduction in public sector indebtedness “was mainly reflected in the decrease of financing granted by the financial sector (1.1 billion euros) and the general government (0.5 billion euros). These reductions were partially offset by the increase of financing granted by the external sector (0.5 billion euros).”
In the case of the private sector, the corporations’ indebtedness fell by 1.3 billion euros. “This reduction mainly reflects the decrease in financing granted by the external sector (0.9 billion euros) and the financial sector (0.2 billion euros).”
