Portugal’s net external debt declined from 80.7% of GDP at the end of 2021 (170.6 billion euros) to 77.9% (169.3 billion euros) in the first quarter of 2022, the lowest since the first quarter of 2009.

According to data released on Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), Portugal’s net external debt is equivalent to the international investment position (PII) discounted from equity instruments, bullion and derivatives.

In this period, the IIP became less negative, going from -95.8% of GDP in 2021 to -92.8% at the end of the first quarter of 2022, which is the lowest negative value since the second quarter of 2008. The IIP represents ” The balance between foreign financial assets held by residents and liabilities issued by residents and owned by the rest of the world.”

According to the Portuguese Institute of Statistics, this discrepancy in FDI is mainly due to positive exchange rate changes in foreign assets held by residents in the Angolan kwanza, the US dollar and the Brazilian real, amounting to 1.6 billion euros, while the positive contribution from the devaluation of Portuguese public debt securities held by non-residents and the central bank’s gold portfolio estimate, as well as the negative contribution from financial transactions, amounted to 1.4 billion euros.