Public debt falls to €269.8 billion in November

Portugal’s public debt, in the Maastricht perspective, shrank by €1.4 billion in November, to €269.8 billion – the lowest figure since November 2020 – according to data released on Monday by the Bank of Portugal (BoP). This is the fifth consecutive month in which general government debt has fallen, compared with the previous month.

“This decrease mainly reflected debt securities redemptions (€1.6 billion),” the central bank explains in the statistical information note.

In the five months it has been declining, the public debt stock has already shrunk by €7.7 billion. However, it still remains €20 billion below the pre-pandemic level.

The public debt ratio in the third quarter was 130.5% of GDP, down from the 130.9% of GDP originally estimated – GDP grew by 4.2% year-on-year in the third quarter. It is the lowest value since the second quarter of 2020, when Covid-19 came to Portugal. This ratio peaked in the first quarter of this year at 139.1% of GDP.

This fall in the public debt burden is explained not only by the increase in GDP (denominator), but also by the reduction in the debt stock. With a higher GDP and slightly lower debt, the debt ratio fell again.

On the monthly data, the central bank figures also reveal that general government deposit assets decreased €1.7 billion, to €18.3 billion. Thus, net of those deposits, public debt increased by €300 million, to a total of €251.5 billion.

(article last updated at 11h41 am)