According to the 2020 Portuguese Household Finance and Consumption Survey, 27% of the households had a reduction in income between 2019 and 2020 due to the pandemic crisis. Most of these households took some measure to deal with the situation. Almost 70% of households with a decline in income have reduced spending on non-durable goods and services. The other most frequent measures to deal with the reduction in income were the use of accumulated savings or the sale of valuable assets, the resort to a moratorium on the main residence mortgages, the postponement of the purchase of a house, car or other durable good and the resort to help from relatives or friends.

The percentage of households that took measures to deal with the reduction in income declines with income level, being much higher in the lowest income group than in the rest. The reduction in expenditure on non-durable goods and services, the use of accumulated savings or the sale of valuable assets and, in particular, the resort to  help from relatives or friends show a decreasing profile with the level of income. This profile is not observed for the moratorium on the main residence mortgages or the postponement of the purchase of a house, a car or other durable goods. These two measures were slightly more frequent in the households of the fourth income group than in the others.

For more details see the Press Release of Banco de Portugal and Statistics Portugal. “What impact had the pandemic on the financial situation of households?”, published on December 15, 2021.

Prepared by Sónia Costa, Luísa Farinha, Luís Martins and Renata Mesquita. The analyses, opinions and findings expressed above represent the views of the authors and not necessarily those of the Banco de Portugal or the Eurosystem.

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