Portugal’s economic debt close to record high

 In Business, Companies, Economy, News

Company debt in Portugal has increased by half a billion euros this year because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Debt in the non-financial sector worsened by €4.6Bn in July to €740Bn, returning to an amount very close to the record seen in May, according to data published today (Monday 21 September).
According to data from the Bank of Portugal for July, Portugal’s non-financial debt is now €740Bn of which €331.5Bn comes from the public sector and 408.5Bn from the private sector.
Regarding June 2020, debt in the non-financial sector increased by €4.6Bn.
“This increase is down to an additional debt of €3.9Bn from the public sector and €0.7Bn from the private sector,” states the central bank.
The increase in public sector debt reflects growth in external or balance of payments debt (€2.7Bn), growth in debt in the financial sector (€1.7Bn) and companies (€0.4Bn).
These increases were partially offset by a reduction in debt from the public administration by €1.1Bn.
In the private sector, company debt increased €0.5Bn. This growth resulted above all from an increase in debt in the financial sector (€0.8Bn) which was partially offset by a reduction in exterior debt (€0.3Bn).
Private debt to the financial sector saw an increase of €0.2Bn. In July, the annual variation rate for all private company debt stood at 4%, +0.1 percentage points than seen in the previous month, while private individual debt increased by 0.2 percentage points to 0.7%.