Portugal has become a diversified and increasingly service-based economy since joining the European Community - the EU's predecessor - in 1986. Over the past two decades, successive governments have privatized many state-controlled firms and liberalized key areas of the economy, including the financial and telecommunications sectors. The country qualified for the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in 1998 and began circulating the euro on 1 January 2002 along with 11 other EU members. The economy had grown by more than the EU average for much of the 1990s, but fell back in 2001-08, and contracted 2.5% in 2009, before growing 1.3% in 2010. But GDP fell again in 2011, as the government implemented austerity measures, including a 5% public salary cut, a 2% increase in the value-added tax, and an extraordinary tax on yearend bonuses to comply with conditions of an EU-IMF financial rescue package agreed to in May 2011. GDP per capita stands at roughly two-thirds of the EU-27 average. A rigid labor market has been an obstacle to greater productivity and growth. Portugal also has been increasingly overshadowed by lower-cost producers in Central Europe and Asia as a destination for foreign direct investment. Portugal's low competitiveness, low growth prospects, and high levels of public debt have made it vulnerable to bond market turbulence. The government reduced the budget deficit from 10.1% of GDP in 2009 to 4.5% in 2011, an achievement made possible only by the extraordinary revenues obtained from the one-time transfer of bank pension funds to the social security system. Investors, however, continue to express concern about the government's ability to achieve future budget deficit targets and obtain foreign financing to cover its sovereign debt obligations when the EU-IMF financing program expires in 2013. Without the option for stimulus measures, the government is focusing instead on boosting exports and implementing labor market and other structural reforms to try to raise GDP growth and increase Portugal's competitiveness - which, over time, may help mitigate investor concerns.

Data cover general government debt, and includes debt instruments issued (or owned) by government entities other than the treasury; the data include treasury debt held by foreign entities; the data include debt issued by subnational entities, as well as intra-governmental debt; intra-governmental debt consists of treasury borrowings from surpluses in the social funds, such as for retirement, medical care, and unemployment; debt instruments for the social funds are not sold at public auctions

This is the European Central Bank's rate on the marginal lending facility, which offers overnight credit to banks in the euro area

$89.42 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$95.9 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

See entry for the European Union for money supply in the euro area; the European Central Bank (ECB) controls monetary policy for the 17 members of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU); individual members of the EMU do not control the quantity of money circulating within their own borders

$345.7 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$319.4 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$556.3 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$490.8 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

$61.69 billion (31 December 2011)

$98.65 billion (31 December 2009)

Grain, potatoes, tomatoes, olives, grapes; sheep, cattle, goats, pigs, poultry, dairy products; fish

Textiles, clothing, footwear, wood and cork, paper, chemicals, auto-parts manufacturing, base metals, porcelain and ceramics, glassware, technology, telecommunications; dairy products, wine and other foods; ship construction and refurbishment; tourism

Agricultural products, food products, wine, oil products, chemical products, plastics and rubber, hides, leather, wood and cork, wood pulp and paper, textile materials, clothing, footwear, machinery and tools, base metals

Spain 25.1%, Germany 13.7%, France 12.1%, Angola 5.5%, UK 5.1% (2011)

Agricultural products, chemical products, vehicles and other transport material, and optical and precision instruments, computer accessories and parts, semi-conductors and related devices, oil products, base metals, food products, textile materials

Spain 31.7%, Germany 12.4%, France 6.9%, Italy 5.4%, Netherlands 4.8% (2011)

$21.34 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$21 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$109.8 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$110.2 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$64.25 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$64.25 billion (31 December 2010 est.)