Budget deficit €6.6Bn

Portugal’s public deficit continued to fall in 2021 compared to the same period in 2020.

Public administration recorded a deficit of €6.652Bn to November 2021. This was an improvement of €2.2Bn like-for-like on 2020.
The numbers were released on Tuesday by the Ministry of Finances before the release of the bulletin from the Directorate-General of the Budget (DGO) which was also released later that day.
“The public administration deficit to November in the public accounts fell by €2.2Bn, explained by a growth in receipts (8.6%) which was greater than expenses (5.0%)”, states the Ministry of Finances in a communiqué, adding that the deficit was down to expenses resulting from “the pandemic and expenditure on the SNS (Portuguese National Health Service)”.
Between January and November 2020 the budget deficit was €8.8Bn. The improvement this year to November suggests that the Portuguese government will meet its deficit target this year of 4.3%, and may even exceed the target.
This is the expectation from the Minister of Finances, João Leão, since according to the National Statistics Institute, national accounts improved by the end of the third quarter of 2021 to 2.5% of GDP. In 2020 it reached 5.7% of GDP.