ZAP
Portugal is the Economy of the Year, after coming in 16th place. What happened so miraculous?
Portugal was elected the “Economy of the World 2025” at the top of a ranking by the British magazine. It went from 16th place to 1st in a ranking of 36 mostly rich countries, without final weighting of the indicators.
The British magazine changed the classification criteria and, given that “the indicators did not fluctuate much”, that is why Portugal won, points out Pedro Carreira Garcia in .
Many received the news with laughter. “It’s a joke, right?”, they ask, since everywhere they look, the Portuguese see exorbitant rents, more expensive credit and salaries that don’t keep up with the cost of living.
It matters clarify the criteria that led to this decision.
The classification does not measure the well-being of each family: it measures macro trends, averages and international comparisons. the magazine says it is based on five indicators: inflation, “amplitude of inflation” (the percentage of goods and services whose average increase exceeded 2%), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment trends and stock market performance.
But the weighting formula that determines the final classification is not disclosed. Therefore, the ranking must be read with caution.
The 2025 portrait combines more stable prices with growth above the European average and a robust job market. Family consumption and the boost from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) have supported activity, while immigration has helped to increase the active population, allowing jobs to be created and vacancies filled. Amaro adds more structural signs: fewer recurring deficits, a less indebted private sector and greater openness to the outside world.
But there are limits, economists Gonçalo Pina and Ricardo Amaro point out to . Tourism — often cited as a driver — is already showing a slowdown in 2025 and both the PRR and the rate of population growth have a horizon.
PSD deputy Hugo Patrício Oliveira’s argument, in defense of the Government in an article in , that “correcting the imbalance caused by years of socialist governance and worsened by ‘contraption’ cannot be done overnight” and that gains in productivity, investment and qualified employment take time to be reflected in higher and more stable wages. It also says that the weight of expenses such as housing, energy and food can cancel out the effect of nominal salary increases, especially if recent inflation has eroded purchasing power.
“Best economy of the year” means, above all, that the indicators are evolving well as a whole. But feeling this in your pocket depends on how growth translates into real wages, access to housing, job stability and public services.
