The weight of instruments used by families totals more than 15% of public debt in 2025, exceeding the 13% still held by the troika.
Portuguese families officially surpassed the troika as the main creditor of the national public debt, driven by strong demand for savings certificates and other State savings instruments. The data appears in the State Budget proposal for 2026 (OE2026) and was consulted by .
According to the document, the Economic and Financial Assistance Program (PAEF) — which in 2011 involved the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Financial Stability Fund (EFFS) and the European Financial Stabilization Mechanism (MEEF) — will represent 46.1 billion euros at the end of 2025. The Government plans to reimburse 800 million euros to the FEEF and 2.2 billion to the MEEF in next year, totaling 3 billion euros in payments to the troika during 2026.
With these repayments, European loans will represent 13% of total debt at the end of 2026, a smaller share than that held by individuals. Only savings certificates should correspond to 12.6% of public debt by the end of this year, with the “stock” of these products exceeding, for the first time, 40 billion euros. Adding Treasury certificates and variable-yield Treasury bonds, the weight of instruments intended for families will reach 15.1% of debt in 2025 and 14.8% in 2026.
The Government expects that the balance between subscriptions and amortizations of savings certificates will be positive at 3.6 billion euros in 2026, reflecting the continued interest of savers, despite limiting the maximum remuneration to 2.5%.
Still, the Treasury bonds (OT) continue to be the State’s main source of financing, representing 54.1% of the debt in 2025 and 57.1% in 2026. Short-term debt, via Treasury bills (BT), is expected to maintain a weight of around 10%.
The new configuration confirms a structural shift, with Portugal today depending more on the trust of its families than on international creditors.
