Portugal’s debt reaches €250Bn historic maximum

Portugal’s ballooning debt shows no sign of slowing. It rose €4.3Bn in April with an extra €300 million on the public debt in May.

Portugal has once again hit a new record with Portuguese public debt increasing €300 million in May to a record €250.3Bn.

It represents an even higher amount than when the alarm bells sounded in August last year when Portugal’s debt hit €251Bn.

“Public administration deposit assets have fallen €1.1Bn while net public debt deposits increased by €1,4Bn in relation to the previous month” states the Bank of Portugal (BdP).

It means that when public administration deposit assets are subtracted, the net debt has achieved a historic maximum.

Government forecasts for the end of 2018 was that total public debt should fall to 122% but the first three months of this year show that public debt has actually soared to over the 125.7% registered in December 2017.

Nevertheless, figures for June are expected to be lower given that €6.6Bn was paid off from an issue of government bonds which reached maturity.