Portugal news, in English, every morning. Free.

Subscribe

The Portugal Brief
Subscribe
Public Debt

Portugal Was One of Only Five EU Countries in Surplus in the Second Quarter, but Its Debt Ratio Climbed to 92.5 Percent, Eurostat Figures Show

Eurostat's quarterly figures give Portugal a 0.8 percent of GDP surplus from April to June, the fifth-largest in the EU, while government debt rose 2.1 points to 92.5 percent of GDP, the second-biggest increase after Poland. What the numbers mean.

The Portugal Brief 2 min read

Written in English, with the help of AI tools, from the Portuguese sources named in this story. How we work

Portugal Was One of Only Five EU Countries in Surplus in the Second Quarter, but Its Debt Ratio Climbed to 92.5 Percent, Eurostat Figures Show
The Ministry of Finance on Praça do Comércio, Lisbon. Photo: Threeohsix, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Portugal was one of only five European Union countries whose government ran a budget surplus in the second quarter of 2026, according to figures Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, published on 21 October. Over the same three months its public debt rose faster, relative to the size of the economy, than in any other member state except Poland.

A small surplus

Adjusted for seasonal effects, Portugal's general government (the State, regions, councils and Social Security together) took in more than it spent between April and June, a surplus of 0.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). That compares with 0.7 percent in the first quarter. In the Eurostat release, only Cyprus (3.3 percent), Denmark (2.7 percent), Greece (2.2 percent) and Ireland (1.9 percent) had bigger surpluses. Every other member state ran a deficit.

The euro area as a whole ran a seasonally adjusted deficit of 3.3 percent of GDP, and the EU 3.5 percent. France (5.1 percent), Belgium (5.3 percent), Poland (5.9 percent), Hungary (7.2 percent) and Romania (9.2 percent) were among the largest.

For the whole of 2025, Eurostat's October notification confirms a Portuguese surplus of 0.7 percent of GDP, about 2.0 billion euros. Portugal was one of five member states in surplus last year, with Cyprus, Denmark, Greece and Ireland. We reported last month on where that surplus came from: Social Security.

Debt back up to 92.5 percent

The debt figures tell a less tidy story. At the end of June, Portugal's government debt stood at 293.7 billion euros, or 92.5 percent of GDP. That is up from 283.0 billion euros (90.4 percent) at the end of March and 275.1 billion euros (89.2 percent) at the end of 2025.

  • Quarter on quarter: the ratio rose 2.1 percentage points. Only Poland, at 3.0 points, rose more.
  • Year on year: the ratio was 3.4 points lower than at the end of June 2025 (95.9 percent), the fourth-largest fall in the EU, after Greece, Cyprus and Slovenia. The debt itself was 6.6 billion euros higher than a year earlier; the economy grew faster.
  • Ranking: Portugal had the sixth-highest ratio in the EU, after Greece (140.8 percent), Italy (139.9 percent), France (119.1 percent), Belgium (110.2 percent) and Spain (101.4 percent). The euro area average was 88.8 percent and the EU average 82.9 percent.

The rise in the first half follows a pattern seen in Eurostat's own series. Last year, too, Portugal's ratio climbed between March and June, from 94.3 to 95.9 percent, and then fell to 89.2 percent by December. Eurostat's release does not say what drove the rise this time. The annual figures, which the government reports to Eurostat each April and October, are the ones used to judge member states' deficits and debt.

Why it matters

The government's 2027 budget forecasts a small surplus again next year, with interest on the debt rising to 8.2 billion euros. Savers are also lending the State more than planned: this month demand for savings certificates ran so far above forecast that the State widened its 2026 issuance cap to 16 billion euros.

Eurostat's quarterly data are provisional and can be revised.

Read next