Lisbon, Dec. 17, 2025 (Lusa) - Purchasing power in Portugal rose to 82.4% of the European average in 2024, 1.3 percentage points above 2023, keeping the country in 15th place among the 20 eurozone countries and 18th in the European Union.
According to preliminary data released today by Statistics Portugal (INE), between 2023 and 2024, Portugal's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, expressed in purchasing power parities (PPP), rose from 81.1% to 82.4% of the European Union (EU) average, while maintaining the country's position in the European rankings for these indicators.
Concerning per capita Individual Consumption Expenditure, identified by INE as "a more appropriate indicator to reflect the well-being of households" (while GDPpc is mainly an indicator of the level of economic activity), it stood at 85.7% of the European Union average in 2024, 0.2 percentage points more than in the previous year.
In this indicator, Portugal ranked 15th in the euro area and 17th in the European Union, compared to 14th and 16th, respectively, in the previous year.
Last year, Portugal, with a GDP per capita (GDPpc) index of 82.4, remained in 15th place among the 19 Member States of the euro area, below countries such as Lithuania (87.5), Slovenia (90.4) and Spain (91.2) and ahead of Estonia (79.0), Croatia (77.7) and Slovakia (74.6).
In nominal terms, Portugal's GDPpc increased by 5.9% in 2024, determined by the nominal increase in GDP (7.1%), with the population increasing moderately compared to the previous year.
Overall, INE reports a "high dispersion" of the GDPpc volume indicator measured in PPS in the 27 EU Member States: Luxembourg (244.6) has the highest index among the 36 countries, corresponding to more than twice the EU27 average and almost four times higher than Bulgaria (65.9), the EU country with the lowest value.
The coefficient of variation of GDPpc in the 36 countries considered in the exercise stood at 45.1%, down from 46.2% in 2023.
Between 2023 and 2024, INE reports "significant variations" in GDPpc volume indices, measured in PPP, with reductions in 16 of the 36 countries analysed, with the largest decreases recorded in Norway (-8.5 percentage points), Iceland (-4.8 percentage points) and Luxembourg (-3.3 percentage points).
Conversely, there were increases in the GDPpc volume indices of Albania (4.0 percentage points), Ireland (3.7 percentage points) and the Netherlands and Serbia (3.1 percentage points).
Concerning per capita individual consumption expenditure (PCEpc) in 2024, for the 36 countries considered in the exercise, the coefficient of variation for this indicator was 25.8%, around 19 percentage points lower than that for GDPpc.
According to INE, GDPpc, "because it includes additional components subject to greater volatility, tends to show greater dispersion between countries when compared to ICPC".
Despite the lower dispersion compared to GDPpc, the statistical institute still reports "substantial differences" in ICPC between EU Member States.
The INE warns that the results released today "should be analysed with caution, particularly in terms of temporal evolution, since changes of different kinds occur over time".
These include changes in the selection of the common basket of goods and services used for comparison, the methods and sources of prices used in the PPP exercise, and the revision of national accounting values.
PD/ADB // ADB.
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