Portugal had expected to celebrate 2020 as the year its economy finally turned the corner. The minority Socialist government was on course for posting the former bailout country’s first budget surplus in almost half a century of democracy. The first three months were projected to complete a sixth full year of uninterrupted quarterly growth, the last four years at a pace significantly above the eurozone average.
In any event, 2019 turned out to be the year for which Portugal recorded its first fiscal surplus since the ‘Carnation Revolution’ of 1974 returned the country to democracy after decades of right-wing dictatorship.