Portugal’s public debt falls to €269.6 billion in 2021; 127.5% of GDP

The country’s public debt, using the Maastricht criteria, totalled €269.6 billion in 2021, representing a €900 million decrease from the end of 2020, according to data released by the Bank of Portugal (BoP) this Tuesday. Public debt as a percentage of GDP decreased from 135.2% to 127.5%.

“This decrease mainly reflected debt securities redemptions (€4.6 billion), partially offset by the increase in liabilities in deposits (€1.4 billion), namely deposits from third parties in general government and saving and Treasury certificates, and loans (€2.4 billion),” explained the central bank, also adding that “the increase in loans was mainly explained by loans received from the European Commission under the SURE instrument (€2.4 billion) and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (€0.4 billion).”

It was also revealed that the debt ratio totalled 127.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of 2021. A decrease of 7.7 percentage points (p.p) from the end of 2020.

Last year, the general government deposits – the so-called “financial cushion” – decreased €8.3 billion, to €15.7 billion. Thus, net of those deposits, public debt increased by €7.4 billion, to €253.9 billion.

The next BoP update on public debt statistics will be released on March 2.