Almost too startling to be a ‘brief’ news item, Portugal’s central bank has registered a negative operational balance for 2023 of over a BILLION euros. This may have little connection with previous news that the former PS government’s choice of governor (Mário Centeno, the former Socialist minister of finance) is not tipped to be re-elected for a second mandate. The operational balance of the bank was €700,000 (positive) in 2022. Incoming PSD finance minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento is said to have been ‘taken by surprise’ by this negative balance, even though it was expected, given the European Central Bank’s hiking of interest rates.
Bank of Portugal registers negative balance of over a BILLION euros
Governor of the Bank of Portugal Mário Centeno
