Portugal’s public debt reaches 231.1b euros

A tourist poses for a photograph in front of the Belem Tower during a foggy day on the Tejo river in Lisbon, Portugal

Portugal’s public debt is expected to have increased by 6.6 billion euros in January, standing at a total of 231.1 billion euros by month’s end, the Technical Budget Support Unit said Friday in Lisbon (UTAO).
The independent technicians supporting parliament claim that increasing the amount of public debt “contributed to the amount of debt issued in January and the subscription of Savings Certificates and Treasury Certificates.”
At the end of February, the central bank announced that state debt had reached 224.477 million euros and central government net debt on deposits stood at 206.971 million in December 2014.
According to the Bank of Portugal, the debt ratio of general government to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in line with Maastricht guidelines, stood at 128.7 percent in 2014, more than in 2013 (128 percent) and more than the target set by the government for the last year, which was 127.2 percent of GDP.
Debt, based on Maastricht criteria, is used to measure the level of indebtedness of the government of a country and the concept is defined in a 2009 regulation of the European Council on the application of the Protocol on excessive deficits attached to the Treaty establishing the European Community.
The numbers already include the accounting changes based on the European System of Accounts for SEC2010 that all EU countries had to adopt by September last year and, in the case of Portugal, generated an upward review of the GDP figure and a downward review of the debt to GDP ratio. MDT/Macauhub