“The budget surplus in the first half of this year remained on par with the first half of 2024, but more significant are the final figures for 2024 and a sharper reduction in public debt,” stated the Minister of State and Finance as he arrived for the social concertation meeting, reacting to today’s data released by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) regarding national accounts.
Joaquim Miranda Sarmento highlighted that while the government’s forecast pointed to a public debt ratio of 94.9% of GDP in 2024, there was a “more pronounced reduction,” concluding at 93.6% of GDP. “This contributes to a better position for Portugal, aids in the improvement of its credit rating as seen in recent weeks, and is good news for all Portuguese people,” he emphasized.
When questioned about the Public Finance Council’s (CFP) forecasts, which indicate that the Portuguese economy is expected to grow by 1.9% this year and 1.8% in 2026, a downward revision from the April projection due to lower public investment and exports, the Finance Minister acknowledged that the upcoming year “is more demanding from a budgetary perspective,” given the “large volume of loans from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) to be executed.” However, he stressed that today’s data “helps improve public accounts, without overlooking that 2026 is a very demanding year.”
The Finance Minister further noted that the government’s goal is to reduce public debt by “3 to 4 percentage points each year” and that in 2024 “this reduction was slightly above 4 percentage points,” which represents “a sign of a prudent and responsible budgetary trajectory.”
The public debt ratio stood at 93.6% of the 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 Public Administrations is expected to have decreased to 93.6% of GDP (96.9% the previous year),” according to the document released today by the INE, the second notification.
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 ratio to GDP had settled at 94.9% in 2024, the lowest level since 2009 (87.6%) and below the State Budget forecast of 95.9%.
