Portugal's Public Accounts Close September With a 5.1 Billion Euro Surplus, 1.2 Billion Below 2025 as the Health Service Clears Old Debts
The public sector banked 5,064.4 million euros to September, down on 2025 mainly because the SNS paid 1,427.3 million of overdue debts. IRS and VAT drove a 6.5 percent rise in state tax revenue, and storm Kristin support has cost 607.9 million.
Portugal's public sector ran a surplus of 5,064.4 million euros in the first nine months of 2026. That is 1,238.5 million euros less than in the same period of 2025, when it stood at 6,302.9 million, according to the monthly budget execution report (Síntese da Execução Orçamental) published on 30 October by the Entidade Orçamental, the Finance Ministry's budget office. Spending grew 12 percent and revenue 9.8 percent.
The figures are cumulative from January, so the surplus has not shrunk over the summer. At the end of August it was 249.3 million euros, and it jumped in September, as it did in 2025. What has narrowed is the gap with last year, from 1,799.4 million euros at the end of August to 1,238.5 million now.
Why the surplus is smaller than in 2025
Most of the gap comes from one item. The national health service (SNS) has used capital injections to pay off overdue debts, and those payments reached 1,427.3 million euros by September, against 199.1 million a year earlier. Without them, the surplus would be 6,491.7 million euros, only 10.4 million below 2025.
Investment is the other big driver. It rose by 2,619.6 million euros (48.8 percent), mostly projects funded by the EU Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) in health, higher education, infrastructure and housing, plus new rolling stock for the railways. Councils also spent more on housing and schools.
The surplus rests on Social Security, which recorded 5,967.7 million euros, up from 4,745.4 million. Central government was in deficit by 2,640.2 million euros, after a small surplus a year earlier. These are cash figures. The national-accounts figures that Brussels uses are calculated differently, as in Eurostat's second-quarter release.
Where the tax money came from
State tax revenue reached 51,161.9 million euros, up 6.5 percent. Income tax (IRS) and VAT (IVA) did most of the work:
- IRS: net revenue up 1,919.9 million euros (13.5 percent). The report says this is partly a base effect. Special withholding tables applied in August and September 2025 affected revenue in September 2025, an effect that was not repeated this year.
- VAT: net revenue up 1,783.5 million euros (9.4 percent), or 10 percent once VAT payments deferred into later months are counted.
- Corporate tax (IRC): down 464.2 million euros (6.2 percent).
- Fuel tax (ISP): down 159 million euros (5.6 percent).
- Municipal property tax (IMI): up 21.8 percent for councils.
What it means for you
Support after storm Kristin and the extreme weather that followed has cost 607.9 million euros so far. Of that, 236.3 million is Social Security contributions that affected employers did not have to pay. The other 371.4 million is spending, including 99.0 million to repair permanent homes, 59.3 million in job-retention grants and 34.2 million for farms and forests.
The state is also paying its suppliers faster. Overdue public bills fell by 384.6 million euros in September to 617.5 million, and almost all of the fall (364.9 million) was in health. Since June, a bill counts as overdue after 30 days, or 60 for the SNS, instead of 90, so the report gives no comparison with last year.
These figures are for 2026. The government's plan for next year is a separate debate, covered in our report on the Fiscal Council's view of the 2027 surplus target. The full September report is on the Entidade Orçamental website (in Portuguese).
