Portugal's New Ten-Year Treasury Certificate Pays Up to 3.35%, Reshaping the Choice for Cautious Savers
The government has launched Treasury Certificates Series 5, a ten-year state savings product with a rising gross rate that starts at 2.35% and reaches 3.35% in the final year, for an average of about 2.71%. The minimum subscription is €1,000, interest is paid annually, and savers can buy through Afo
Savers weighing where to park their cash have a new state-backed option to consider. The government has launched a fresh series of Certificados do Tesouro (Treasury Certificates), a ten-year savings product that pays a rising interest rate topping out at 3.35% — and it replaces the previous Poupança Valor line that had been the Treasury's retail offering.
How the new certificate works
The Certificados do Tesouro Série 5 (Treasury Certificates Series 5) run for ten years and require a minimum initial subscription of €1,000. Rather than a single flat rate, they pay a gross rate that steps up over the life of the product: 2.35% in the first year, 2.45% in the second and third, 2.65% in the fourth and fifth, 2.75% in the sixth and seventh, 2.85% in the eighth and ninth, and 3.35% in the tenth and final year. Averaged across the decade, that works out at a gross return of roughly 2.71% a year.
Interest is paid out annually and is not capitalised — it does not compound inside the product — and the capital is returned at its nominal value on the tenth anniversary of the subscription. Savers who need their money sooner can redeem from the end of the first year, but early exit carries a penalty: the loss of the interest accrued since the most recent anniversary.
Where to buy, and the tax bite
Subscriptions can be made through AforroNet, the state's online savings platform, as well as at CTT post offices, Espaços Cidadão (Citizen's Shops) and participating banks. As with other Portuguese savings income, the interest is subject to the standard 28% withholding tax, so the headline rates are before that deduction — a detail worth folding into any comparison.
How it stacks up against Aforro
The Treasury Certificates are the fixed-rate cousin of the better-known Certificados de Aforro (Savings Certificates), whose rate floats with short-term Euribor and has recently hovered around the low-2% range. The trade-off is straightforward: the new certificates lock in a known, gradually rising path for a full decade, shielding savers from further falls in market rates, while the Aforro line keeps pace if rates climb again but offers no such guarantee.
Analysts have flagged that the more generous terms risk cannibalising both the older Treasury lines and the Aforro certificates, as households shift money toward the better deal. For a resident sitting on cash they can genuinely leave untouched for years, the Série 5 offers a rare thing in the current market — a state-guaranteed, predictable return that beats most bank deposits without any exposure to shares or funds. For anyone who may need the money in the short term, the annual-only interest and early-exit penalty make it a poorer fit than a flexible deposit or the Aforro alternative.
