Portugal must rebalance its economy and improve education to continue its economic recovery

Portugal was one of the worst hit countries by the Eurozone crisis, but emerged from its bailout programme in 2014. As part of our ‘Economies of Europe’ series, Francesco Franco provides an account of the development of the Portuguese economy since the crisis, including some of the key challenges it now faces. He notes that Portugal has only posted a current account surplus twice since 1960, and requires a rebalancing of its economy from non-tradable to tradable sectors. He argues Portugal should also aim to increase the education and skills of the existing labour force, given the country currently lags behind other EU states in this area.