EO debate. Ventura says that Portugal has the 12th largest public debt in the world, but it is actually the 13th
“Today, finally, Mr. Minister of Finance [Fernando Medina] deigned to come to the Chamber. I used to come, I don’t know whether from Brussels or elsewhere, to watch the vote and the approval of the Budget with an absolute majority. But by the time you sit here, Fernando Medina knows that we have the 12th largest public debt in the world. You know that we also run the risk of us in the third country becoming the poorest in the EU), declared Ventura in the European Discussion (from the discussion on the Budget for 2022.
This at the same time that, defended the leader of Chega, “weeks of four days of work”, “subsidies for those who do not want to work” and “the continuous fattening of the State machine” are being considered. According to Ventura, Portugal is “on the path of bankruptcy” and “of destruction”on a path similar to the “last socialist government”.
Between 2001 and 2021 it has increased from 57.4% to 116.6%, with three drops almost continuously with just a few exceptions: slight drops between 2006 and 2007 and between 2014 and 2015; and one more conducted and between 2016-2019.
Now, the Polygraph, like Portugal, the public debt in the opinion of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has pushed the economy, in recent years, to the group of economies with the most honest values in the world. Between 2001 and 2021 this number increased from 57.6% to 116.6%, having come almost uninterruptedly with only three exceptions: slight declines between 2006 and 2007 and between 2014 and 2015; and one more conducted and between 2016-2019.
In 2020, a new record was beaten and public debt accessible 135.2% of the national GDP, dropping to 127.5% in the following year. Now, in 2022, what do the values tell us? Did Portugal really register the 12th largest public debt in the world? And it will be in the position occupied in 2010, on the eve of the arrival of troika?
The Polygraph surveyed the data gathered by the IMF and 2nd position of Portugal was, in 2nd position of classification from countries with higher public debt: a total of 100.2% of GDP. Ahead of the Portuguese territory were Nauru (243.2%), Japan (205.7%), Eritrea (198.4%), Greece (147.5%), Jamaica (143.7%), Saint Kitts Island (141.7%), Lebanon (136.8%), Iceland (133.1%), Italy (119.2%), Barbados (108.9%) and Belgium (100.3%).
The Polygraph carried out a survey of the data gathered by the IMF2 and found that Portugal was in 12th position in the classification of countries with the highest public debt: a total of 100.2% of GDP.
As we have already seen, from 2010 to 2014 growth was brutal and, in this last year, 133% of the GDP in public debt was reached. As of 2016 and 2019, Portugal managed to reduce its debt from 131.5% to 116.6%, a number that will only increase in 2020, the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2022, IMF data show that Portugal managed to lower its public debt, setting it, so far, at 121.6%. This number puts Portugal back on the list of countries with the highest public debt in the world, more precisely in the 13th (and not 12th) position. In the top places are Sudan (284.1%), Japan (262.5%), Greece (185.4%), Cape Verde (159.2%), Eritrea (151.9%), Italy (150.6%), Bhutan (133.5%), Suriname (132.2%), Singapore (130.9%), Maldives (129.2%), United States (125.6%) and Barbados ( 125.4%).
In previous years, in which the values are already fixedPortugal ranked 13th (2021), 14th (2020), 11th (2019), 10th (2018), 9th (2017), 7th (2016 and 2015), 8th (2014 and 2013), 7th position (2012) and 10th position in 2011.