Household, corporate and state debt grows

The debt of the non-financial sector, which includes public administrations, companies and individuals, increased in April by around 4.4 billion euros, to 829.5 billion euros, the Bank of Portugal (BdP) announced this Monday.

At the end of April, private sector debt — which includes companies and individuals — amounted to around 459.8 billion euros, while around 369.6 billion euros related to the public sector (public administrations and public companies).

In the fourth month of the year, private sector debt remained practically unchanged , as a result of a reduction of around 900 million euros in private companies' debt and an equivalent increase in private individuals' debt.

The reduction in private companies' debt was contributed to by the reduction in debt in relation to the rest of the world, which fell by around one billion euros. On the private side, as in previous months, the increase in debt was mainly driven by housing credit .

In the public sector, the increase of 4.4 billion euros occurred mainly from abroad (2.2 billion euros), due to the acquisition of public debt securities by non-residents and by public administrations (around 1.7 billion euros).

Public administrations and public companies also increased their debt to individuals by around 400 million euros, “ mainly through the subscription of savings certificates ”, and to non-financial companies (100 million euros).

In the month under analysis, the debt of private companies had an annual rate of change (a.r.) — which excludes the impact of variations that were not motivated by transactions themselves — of 0.8%, compared to the same month in 2024, slowing down compared to 1.3% in March.

Among individuals, the TVA rose 5.4%, also above that recorded in February (5.1%), with the BdP noting that “it has shown a growth trend since December 2023”.