National accounts with a two-billion-euro surplus

The results of the national accounts for 2025 are "truly historical", stressed the Minister of State and Finance Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, as this is an "improvement on the budget balance during a Government that cut taxes, enhanced careers, increased social benefits, and accelerated public investment".

In a statement on the data disclosed by the Portuguese Statistics Office, the Minister claimed that "in 2025, Portugal had a 0.7% GDP surplus, more than two billion euros", the second largest surplus in democracy.

In 2024, the surplus was 0.6% of GDP, around 1.8 billion euros.

Furthermore, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento recalled that "in 2025, for the first time in 16 years, public debt was below 90% of GDP at 89.7%. We cut the debt ratio by almost 4 percentage points boosting the economy’s resilience to external shocks and reducing interest expenses", he added.

These results show that Portugal "continues to stake its claim on an international level as a country with balanced and predictable accounts, and budget surpluses".

However, he cautioned, "this surplus is not an end in itself. It is the condition that allows us to cut taxes, invest in public services, and protect households and companies at a time of crisis".

This surplus is based on three factors:

1. the robust evolution of revenues in line with the economy’s and the labour market’s performance

2. the strict management of public expenses, ensuring growth is compatible with macroeconomic stability

3. a predictable budget strategy that boosts citizens’, companies’, and investors’ confidence.

Cutting taxes and increasing wages

The Minister also said that this surplus for 2025, as had been the case with 2024, happened at a time of: 

• Cutting taxes (income tax, youth income tax, corporate income tax, exemption from property tax and stamp duty for youths buying their first home)

• Increases in 27 civil service careers, covering more than 300 thousand workers

• Increases in pensions and social benefits and the social benefit for the elderly from €530 to €670

• And boosting public services and accelerating public investment.

Starting point

Miranda Sarmento said that however, "this is not a point of arrival, this is a step in a path of responsibility" as "it is not based on temporary measures, rather a consistent trajectory to control expenditure and grow revenues".

Portugal must maintain the public accounts’ equilibrium and continue to cut public debt, a "prudent trajectory", as only this will "enable us to face crises and challenges with strengthened confidence (…) in a demanding external context", he said, adding that "the best way to protect households is to ensure economic stability and cut future expenses with debt".

This result "reinforces Portugal’s position and external evaluation", improving the country’s financing, as well as that of households and companies, and "gives the State room to act in response to the crises caused by the storms and now Iran" and face the payment of the 2.5 billion euros in loans on the RRF and for boosting national defence. 

"It was the effort undertaken by the Portuguese in 2025 that allowed us to reach this result, enabling us to face these huge challenges for 2026 together", he added saying "there is no room for complacency".