Inflation and wages
English edition
Real average full-time pay in Portugal was flat from 2000 to 2019 and rose 15,9 % in 2019-2025. The paper sets prices, pay, profits, the minimum wage and tax side by side, grades each figure by evidence and lists what remains open.
Download PDF View the paper pageEurozone prosperity
English edition
Real GDP per head in Portugal rose 25,7 % from 1999 to 2025, against 29,8 % in the euro area: richer than in 1999, but not caught up. On most non-monetary measures Portugal is at or better than the EU average; income, cold homes, households' out-of-pocket health spending and regional gaps are the weak spots.
Download PDF View the paper pageStatistics and online experience
English edition
Official statistics and Portuguese online talk seem to describe two different countries. The paper tests that impression topic by topic and finds they rarely contradict each other because they rarely measure the same quantity; explanations for the gaps are stated as hypotheses, not findings.
Download PDF View the paper pageHousing
English edition
House prices in Portugal rose 17,6 % in 2025 against 5,5 % in the EU27, and among people renting at market price 27,2 % spent more than 40 % of disposable income on housing. The paper separates descriptive evidence, causal estimates, hypotheses and policy judgements, and anything not confirmed at source is reported as open.
Download PDF View the paper pageFinancial education
English edition
Portugal's financial literacy depends on how it is measured. On the OECD/INFE 2023 adult survey Portugal scored 63,4, 13th of 39 countries and slightly above the OECD-20 average of 62,7, but its knowledge score ranked 21st; on the 2023 Flash Eurobarometer 11 % of Portuguese adults reached a high literacy score, against 18 % in the EU27. The paper sets this next to household outcomes, complaints to regulators, national plans and measures abroad, gives each figure a source and a stated level of verification, tests public claims and field observations as supported, contradicted on average or not measured, and lists what remains open.
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