Top Exports |
---|
Uncoated paper |
Leather footwear |
Vehicle parts |
Cars |
Refined petroleum |
Top Imports |
---|
Packaged medicaments |
Petroleum gas |
Cars |
Vehicle parts |
Crude petroleum |
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, being bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. The Portugal-Spain border is 1,214 km (754 mi) long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union. The republic also holds sovereignty over the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments.
The land within the borders of current Portugal has been continuously settled and fought over since prehistoric times. The Celts and the Romans were followed by the Visigothic and the Suebi Germanic peoples, who were themselves later invaded by the Moors. These Muslim peoples were eventually expelled during the Christian Reconquest of the peninsula. By 1139, Portugal had established itself as a kingdom independent from León. In the 15th and 16th centuries, as the result of pioneering the Age of Discovery, Portugal expanded Western influence and established the first global empire, becoming one of the world's major economic, political and military powers.
In Portugal, banking activities are regulated by the Banco de Portugal. The role of this institution is to ensure the stability, efficiency and solidity of the financial system. Therefore, your relations with Portuguese financial institutions will always be safeguarded, as the Banco de Portugal also regulates all financial products and services that are on offer. It establishes rules of conduct to make sure that financial institutions ensure that transparent information is provided during the pre-contractual and contractual phases of obtaining products and services.
The Banco de Portugal has launched the Bank Customer Website to support citizens in making suitable decisions based on present and future resources available to them. Here citizens can find useful information to clarify any doubts that they may have when acquiring financial products and services. This website contains information on different subjects that are relevant to all the main banking products and payment methods, interest rates and services provided by the Banco de Portugal. It also contains an index of the main pieces of legislation that govern the range of banking products and services, a glossary of financial terminology and a list of answers to FAQs. The financial sector in Portugal meets the requirements imposed by the EBA - European Banking Authority and by the national supervisory authority, Banco de Portugal. The results of the stress test exercise for Portugal show that the Portuguese banking groups revealed a high level of resistance in the case of adverse scenario.
Agriculture | Cereals, potatoes, grapes, olives & tomatoes. |
Manufacture | Oil, petroleum, cement, machinery, automotive, ship, electrical, textile, footwear, plastic & ceramics. |
Agriculture | 22.2% |
Industry | 2.6% |
Services (Including financial) | 75.2% (2013 estimate |
Company | Industry |
---|---|
Tranquilidade Vida | Insurance |
SAG Gest | Automobile |
Banco Finantia | Banking |
Sumolis | Beverages |
Secil | Construction |
Jeronimo Martins | Retail |
Cofina SGPS | Conglomerate |
Aguas de Lena | Energy |
Finibanco SA | Banking |
Lusosider | Metal |
Top Exports |
---|
Uncoated paper |
Leather footwear |
Vehicle parts |
Cars |
Refined petroleum |
Top Imports |
---|
Packaged medicaments |
Petroleum gas |
Cars |
Vehicle parts |
Crude petroleum |
Euro next Lisbon is a stock exchange in Lisbon, Portugal. It is part of Euro-next pan-European exchange. Euro-next Lisbon trades equities, public and private bonds, participation bonds, warrants, corporate warrants, investment trust units, and exchange traded funds. The BVL General index is the exchanges official index, and includes all listed shares on the official market. Settlement is T+2. Derivatives include long-term interest rate futures, three-month Lisbon futures, stock index futures and options on the PSI-20 Stock index, and Portuguese stock futures. The predecessor of the Bolsa de Valores de Lisboa (Lisbon Stock Exchange) was created in 1769 as the Assembleia dos Homens de Negócio in the Praça do Comércio Square, Lisbon downtown. In 1891, the Bolsa de Valores do Porto (Oporto Stock Exchange) in Oporto was founded.
After the military coup on April 25, 1974, both the Lisbon and Porto stock exchanges were closed by the revolutionary National Salvation Junta (they would be reopened a couple of years later). The Euro next Lisbon was formed in 2002 when the shares of Bolsa de Valores de Lisboa e Porto (BVLP) were acquired by Euro next N.V. and the exchange was merged into the pan-European exchange. BVLP, the Portuguese exchange, was formed in the 1990s restructuring of the Lisbon Stock Exchange association and the Porto Derivatives Exchange Association. At the end of 2001, 65 companies were listed on BVLP-regulated markets, representing a market capitalization of Euro 96.1 billion. From January to December 2001, a total of 4.7 million futures and options contracts were traded on the BVLP market. In 2007, after the merger of Euro-next and NYSE, Euro-next Lisbon joined the new NYSE Euro-next group, the largest corporation operating multiple securities exchanges in the world. In June 2014 Euro-next completed an initial public offering making it again a standalone company.
The Great Recession in Portugal led to the country being unable to repay or refinance its government debt without the assistance of third parties. To prevent an insolvency situation in the debt crisis Portugal applied for bail-out programs and has drawn a cumulated €79.0 billion (as of November 2014) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Financial Stabilization Mechanism (EFSM), and the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). Greece and Ireland also went into a debt crisis in 2010. Together these debt crisis of these three countries marked the start of the European sovereign debt crisis.
After the financial crisis of 2013;2008, it was known in 2008–2009 that two Portuguese banks (Banco Portugu;s de Negócios (BPN) and Banco Privado Portugus (BPP)) had been accumulating losses for years due to bad investments, embezzlement and accounting fraud. The case of BPN was particularly serious because of its size, market share, and the political implications - Portugal's then current President, Cavaco Silva, and some of his political allies, maintained personal and business relationships with the bank and its CEO, who was eventually charged and arrested for fraud and other crimes. In the grounds of avoiding a potentially serious financial crisis in the Portuguese economy, the Portuguese government decided to give them a bailout, eventually at a future loss to taxpayers. In the opening weeks of 2010, renewed anxiety about the excessive levels of debt in some EU countries and, more generally, about the health of the Euro spread from Ireland and Greece to Portugal, Spain, and Italy. In 2010, PIIGS and PIGS acronyms were widely used by international bond analysts, academics, and the international economic press when referring to these under performing economies. Some senior German policy makers went as far as to say that emergency bailouts to Greece and future EU aid recipients should bring with it harsh penalties.
Robert Fishman, in the New York Times article "Portugal. Unnecessary Bailout", points out that Portugal fell victim to successive waves of speculation by pressure from bond traders, rating agencies and speculators. In the first quarter of 2010, before pressure from the markets, Portugal had one of the best rates of economic recovery in the EU. From the perspective of Portugal. industrial orders, exports, entrepreneurial innovation and high-school achievement, the country matched or even surpassed its neighbors in Western Europe. However, the Portuguese economy had been creating its own problems over a lengthy period of time, which came to a head with the financial crisis. Persistent and lasting recruitment policies boosted the number of redundant public servants. Risky credit, public debt creation, and European structural and cohesion funds were mismanaged across almost four decades.
In the summer of 2010, Moody.Investors Service cut Portugal. sovereign bond rating down two notches from an Aa2 to an A1 Due to spending on economic stimuli, Portugal's debt had increased sharply compared to the gross domestic product. Moody noted that the rising debt would weigh heavily on the governmen short-term finances.
Portugal lost much of its wealth and status with the destruction of Lisbon in a 1755 earthquake, occupation during the Napoleonic Wars, and the independence of Brazil, its wealthiest colony, in 1822. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, later being superseded by the "Estado Novo" right-wing authoritarian regime. Democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to all its colonies, with the exception of Macau, which was handed over to China in 1999. This marked the end of the longest-lived European colonial empire, leaving a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today.
Portugal maintains a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and is a developed country with an advanced economy, and a high living standard, having the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. It is a member of numerous international organizations, including the United Nations, the European Union, the Eurozone, OECD, NATO and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. Portugal is also known for having decriminalized the usage of all common drugs in 2001, the first country in the world to do so.
Marquis of Pombal (Politician) | Henry the Navigator (Explorer) | Antonio Salazar (Politician) | Manuel Bocago (Literary Figure) |
The escudo (non-gold) was again introduced on 22 May 1911, after the 1910 Republican revolution, to replace the real at the rate of 1,000 réis to 1 escudo. The term mil réis (thousand réis) remained a colloquial synonym of escudo up to the 1990s. One million réis was called one conto de réis, or simply one conto. This expression passed on to the escudo, meaning 1,000$.The escudo's value was initially set at 675$00 = 1 kg of gold. After 1914, the value of the escudo fell, being fixed in 1928 at 108$25 to the pound. This was altered to 110$00 to the pound in 1931. A new rate of 27$50 escudos to the U.S. dollar was established in 1940, changing to 25$00 in 1940 and 28$75 in 1949. Inflation throughout the 20th century made centavos essentially worthless by its end, with fractional value coins with values such as 0$50 and 2$50 eventually withdrawn from circulation in the 1990s. With the entry of Portugal in the Eurozone, the conversion rate to the euro was set at 200$482 to €1.
The gold escudo mintage period for each denomination (introduced in 1722) was different: ½ escudo through 1821, 2 escudos through 1789, and 4 escudos through 1799. The 8 escudo coin was only struck between 1722–30. Between 1912 and 1916, silver 10, 20 and 50 centavos and 1-escudo coins were issued. Bronze 1 and 2 centavos and cupro-nickel 4 centavos were issued between 1917 and 1922. In 1920, bronze 5 centavos and cupro-nickel 10 and 20 centavos were introduced, followed, in 1924, by bronze 10 and 20 centavos and aluminum bronze 50 centavos and 1 escudo. Aluminum bronze was replaced with cupro-nickel in 1927. In 1932, silver coins were introduced for 2 1?2, 5 and 10 escudos. The 2 1?2 and 5 escudos were minted until 1951, with the 10 escudos minted until 1955 with a reduced silver content. In 1963, cupro-nickel 2 1?2 and 5 escudos were introduced, followed by aluminum 10 centavos, bronze 20 and 50 centavos and 1 escudo in 1969.
The Casa da Moeda issued notes for 5, 10 and 20 centavos between 1917 and 1925 whilst, between 1913 and 1922, the Banco de Portugal introduced notes for 50 centavos, 1, 2 1?2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 escudos. 50-centavo and 1-escudo notes ceased production in 1920, followed by 2 1?2, 5 and 10 escudos in 1925 and 1926. 5,000-escudo notes were introduced in 1942. The last 20 and 50-escudo notes were printed dated 1978 and 1980, respectively, with 100-escudo notes being replaced by coins in 1989, the same year that 10,000-escudo notes were introduced. Banknotes can still be returned to the central bank Banco de Portugal and converted to euros until 28 February 2022. Escudo banknotes celebrated notable figures from the history of Portugal. The final banknote series featured the Age of Discovery, with João de Barros, Pedro Álvares Cabral, Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, and Henry the Navigator. The last 100-escudo banknote represented Fernando Pessoa, the famous Portuguese writer and poet.
National Song | "A Portuguesa" |
Currency | Euro (EUR) |
Languages | Portuguese,Mirandese |
Population | 10.325 Millions |
GDP / GDP Rank | 298.736 Billion USD |
GDP Growth Rate | 1.5 Percent |
GDP Per Captial | $28933.32 (PPP) |
Size | 92,090 km² |
Inflation | 0.636 Percent |
Time Zone | UTC−01:00 — Azores UTC (WET) — Madeira and the main territory of Portugal |
Interest Rate | 0.00% |
Religion | 91.9% Christians < 1.0% Muslims < 1.0% Hindus < 1.0% Buddhists < 1.0% Jews < 1.0% Other Religions |
Ethnic Group | Homogeneous Mediterranean Stock; Citizens Of Black African Descent Who Immigrated To Mainland During Decolonization Number Less Than 100 000; Since 1990 East Europeans Have Entered Portugal |
Government | Republic President – Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa Prime Minister – António Costa |
Website | Go to the web |
Driving Side | RIGHT |
Public Debt | 130.303 Percent |
Import | $74.32 Billion |
Export | $62.6 Billion |
Unemployment Rate | 11.16 Percent |
Labor Force | 5395000 |
Labor Force (Occupation) | - |
Culture | - |