Portugal's commendable 2017 budget surplus marred by mountainous debt figure

Paul Rees 24 January 2018

parliament Portugal had the fourth largest budget surplus in the eurozone between the second and third quarter last year, according to eurostat figures, out today.

The third quarter budget surplus was the highest in 23 years, with the eurostat data showing the relative position of Portugal within the eurozone.

According to the EC’s statistics institute, Portugal’s budget surplus of 1.5% of GDP in July and September of last year was only surpassed by Luxembourg (2.4%), Germany (2.5%) and Malta (4.2%).

The result also compares favourably with the eurozone average, where a budget deficit of 0.3% of GDP was reported.

This performance in the public accounts figures in the third quarter almost guarantees that the total deficit for 2017 will be below the 1.4% forecast in the 2018 State Budget.

Prime Minister António Costa has hinted at a figure of 1.2% of GDP for the year-end.

These public account figures are all very well but Portugal’s overall debt is a mountainous 130.8% of GDP.

Greece is way further in debt at 177.4% of GDP and Italy’s is higher than Portugal’s at 177.4% but the eurozone average is only 88.1%, showing that Portugal needs now to pay off a significant amount of debt before being considered a robust economy that will attract grade A investors and before paying lower rates for its public borrowing.

Comments

0 #13 Darcy 2018-01-30 00:13

wrf, Please refer to my first comment #3.

0 #12 WFR 2018-01-28 11:28

Quoting Darcy:

Terry P, Your did mention US investors, if I am not mistaken.
However, there is no mistake in how USA investors view Portugal. As Google, one of the biggest U.S multi-national companies is setting up a Technology Hub and Service Centre in Portugal in June 2018, creating 500 new jobs. This new Hub will cover Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Obviously, American multi-national companies have more financial awareness of Portugal than the ADN, no surprise there !

Give it a rest Denby, you continued and deliberate misinterpretations are tedious. If you really can't stand this website, find one that you do like or, better still, set one up yourself and we can all send in comments.

0 #11 TerryP 2018-01-28 11:24

Quoting Darcy:

Terry P, You did mention US investors, if I am not mistaken.
However, there is no mistake in how USA investors view Portugal. As Google, one of the biggest U.S multi-national companies is setting up a Technology Hub and Service Centre in Portugal in June 2018, creating 500 new jobs. This new Hub will cover Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Obviously, American multi-national companies have more financial awareness of Portugal than the ADN, no surprise there !

Quoting Darcy:

Terry P, You did mention US investors, if I am not mistaken.
However, there is no mistake in how USA investors view Portugal. As Google, one of the biggest U.S multi-national companies is setting up a Technology Hub and Service Centre in Portugal in June 2018, creating 500 new jobs. This new Hub will cover Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Obviously, American multi-national companies have more financial awareness of Portugal than the ADN, no surprise there !

What part of "... will attract grade A investors and before paying lower rates for its public borrowing" is it hard to grasp. 'Public borrowing' is the clue here. Clearly this news item deals with public accounts and public borrowing not private investment that has different rules.

-1 #10 Darcy 2018-01-28 09:46

Terry P, You did mention US investors, if I am not mistaken.
However, there is no mistake in how USA investors view Portugal. As Google, one of the biggest U.S multi-national companies is setting up a Technology Hub and Service Centre in Portugal in June 2018, creating 500 new jobs. This new Hub will cover Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Obviously, American multi-national companies have more financial awareness of Portugal than the ADN, no surprise there !

-1 #9 TerryP 2018-01-27 18:44

Quoting Darcy:

Terry P, When you mention U.S investors, what are they investing in ?
Or do you mean the US Vulture Fund managers, who buy up bad dept from failing bank's during recessionary times and then hold on to them until the Country comes out of recession, Which they then use or they sell at extortionate rates.

Ed was referring to public borrowing so I meant the type of investor who buys State bonds, eg pension funds

-1 #8 Darcy 2018-01-27 18:27

Terry P, When you mention U.S investors, what are they investing in ?
Or do you mean the US Vulture Fund managers, who buy up bad dept from failing bank's during recessionary times and then hold on to them until the Country comes out of recession, Which they then use or they sell at extortionate rates.

0 #7 Evan 2018-01-27 15:50

Quoting Carney:

These figures are pie in the sky and everybody including the E.U. eurostat data people knows it, they are just like the actual E.U. accounts that have not been independently signed off for over a decade because the figures are just like these, guesstimates because no-one really has a clue and like any unquantifiable numbers fed into a computer, garbage in = garbage out, any political entity or country can make the figures look however they want to if lying and cheating by its politicians and bureaucrats is the accepted norm.

These figures are probably a bit like the "totally accurate" NOT, Portuguese recycling figures sent to the E.U. to avoid any penalty for not conforming to E.U. recycling targets.

0 #6 Carney 2018-01-27 14:20

These figures are pie in the sky and everybody including the E.U. eurostat data people knows it, they are just like the actual E.U. accounts that have not been independently signed off for over a decade because the figures are just like these, guesstimates because no-one really has a clue and like any unquantifiable numbers fed into a computer, garbage in = garbage out, any political entity or country can make the figures look however they want to if lying and cheating by its politicians and bureaucrats is the accepted norm.

-2 #5 Novocus 2018-01-27 14:02

Quoting Terry P:

Quoting Darcy:
Dear Mr ed,
You report the facts correctly, but then you slither of into your usual rhetoric of Portugal Bashing, that you have become infamous for.
Well infamous to the 100 or so people (if that) who read the "Daily Rag".

Here we go again with Denby.

How else should the debt pile be described? 'Miniscule,' 'not the third highest in the EU'.?

You should talk to some US investors to see how Portugal is viewed - exactly as Ed described. I do, and Ed is shaprly accurate

The last readers figures I saw were around 100,000 a month so 100 seems a bit of a low estimate... or are you just in one of your moods...?

Hi Terry P,
I think you mean Darcey not Denby, although I have my suspicion it's probably one in the same judging by the comment content. :lol:

-1 #4 Terry P 2018-01-27 10:15

Quoting Darcy:

Dear Mr ed,
You report the facts correctly, but then you slither of into your usual rhetoric of Portugal Bashing, that you have become infamous for.
Well infamous to the 100 or so people (if that) who read the "Daily Rag".

Here we go again with Denby.

How else should the debt pile be described? 'Miniscule,' 'not the third highest in the EU'.?

You should talk to some US investors to see how Portugal is viewed - exactly as Ed described. I do, and Ed is shaprly accurate

The last readers figures I saw were around 100,000 a month so 100 seems a bit of a low estimate... or are you just in one of your moods...?

Refresh comments list

You must be a registered user to make comments.
Please register here to post your comments.

JComments