Portugal incapable of growing over 2% says banker

One of Portugal’s top bankers has lamented that Portugal is unlikely, in his opinion, to grow its economy sustainably more than 2%.

Miguel Maya, the CEO of high street bank Millennium bcp, said that while he did not foresee any immediate crisis for Portugal on the horizon, he opined that the country was far from achieving its potential and has little capacity of having the ambitions to grow more.

“We are limiting ourselves because of a lack of ambition and we need to catch up and achieve our potential and I’m disappointed with what we’re achieving”, he told the online news source ECO in the run-up to the forthcoming IRGA Awards 2026.

Last year Miguel Maya won the top prize at the 37th Investor Relations and Governance Awards (IRGAwards) gala, an initiative of Deloitte, which took place at the Pavilhão Carlos Lopes in Lisbon. The CEO of BCP was chosen by the jury as the best CEO for the work done in 2024.

It was a year in which BCP shares rose by nearly 70% in 2024, one of the best performances in Europe, while last year shares appreciated by nearly 40%.

The distinctive characteristics of Portugal and Portuguese workers, along with an increasingly digital global economy, were opportunities in Maya’s view, but he called for more ambition to achieve them. Or, in his own words, “This is something we experience, but it’s not ambition for anyone. We won’t change the world for the better if we continue on this course.”

Miguel Maya is a candidate for the IRGAwards CEO award, an initiative of Deloitte, along with Cláudia Azevedo (Sonae), Paulo Macedo (CGD), João Bento (CTT), and Pedro Castro e Almeida (Santander).

Source: ECO Online.