Today in the news: workers, Centeno and the weight of the IRS

The number of people over 70 who continue to work rose from 13,974 in 2015 to nearly 29,000 in 2024. Most Portuguese believe that Mário Centeno, about to leave the Bank of Portugal, would make a better leader of the Socialist Party than the current secretary-general, José Luís Carneiro. Read the headlines in the national press this Tuesday.

Number of workers over 70 years old doubles

The number of people over 70 who continue to work has doubled in the last ten years. According to Social Security data (which does not include civil servants), at the end of 2024, there were 28,936 workers aged 70 or older with current employment contracts, compared to 13,974 in 2015. Better health conditions, on the one hand, and necessity, on the other, may explain this extension of working lives beyond the legal retirement age, which last year was set at 66 years and four months, four months more than in 2015.

Read the full story in Correio da Manhã (paid access)

Majority believes Centeno is better than Carneiro to lead PS

Most Portuguese believe that Mário Centeno, who is about to leave the Bank of Portugal, would make a better leader of the Socialist Party than the current secretary-general, José Luís Carneiro. The Intercampus poll , conducted between August 7th and 14th, indicates that 56.3% of respondents believe that the outgoing governor of the central bank would be a better fit for the Socialist leadership than the former Minister of Internal Affairs. Conversely, 35.8% of respondents say that Mário Centeno would be "worse" than José Luís Carneiro, while only 0.7% believe that Mário Centeno would be a PS leader "equal to" or very similar to José Luís Carneiro.

Read the full story in Jornal de Negócios (paid access)

IRS burden at lowest level in a decade

In 2024, the IRS contribution to the tax burden was the lowest in the last decade, reaching 6.2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This year, it is expected to be even lower, reaching 5.7% of GDP. However, former Secretary of State for Tax Affairs, Carlos Lobo, warns of the risks of this tax relief: "it reduces the elasticity of revenue to the economic cycle, weakens the redistributive role of personal income tax, and, above all, intensifies the tax system's dependence on VAT and IRC." This is because "we have not done even minimally the essential work: State Reform and moderating public spending," he emphasizes.

Read the full story in Jornal Económico (paid access)

Workers with new salary scales fall 43%

The recovery from the pandemic and the need to restore workers' purchasing power after the inflationary shock have created one of the most dynamic periods for collective bargaining over the past two years. However, this momentum is already slowing, with 43% fewer people covered by salary scale renewals in the first five months of this year alone. Compared to the same period last year, the number of collective bargaining instruments published is even higher, rising from 175 to 187, but almost a third of these texts consist of extension ordinances. On the other hand, the number of workers covered between January and May fell to 327,281, compared to 590,157 in the same period last year, while the universe of those potentially covered by collectively agreed salary increases reached 318,052.

Read the full story in Jornal de Negócios (paid access)

The number of properties auctioned has fallen by half since 2019, but the average price has soared to 118,000 euros.

The sale of seized houses, land and buildings through e-Auctions has already generated more than 7.6 billion euros in less than a decade of operation of the electronic platform managed by the Order of Solicitors and Enforcement Agents (OSAE), with a total of 62,544 auctions held. But these situations show signs of decreasing (and, with it, the number of real estate assets for sale): between January and July of this year, 3,269 properties were auctioned, valued at 267.7 million euros, while in 2024, just over 5,000 real estate assets were sold, generating 593.5 million euros in sales, a far cry from the 10,000 properties auctioned in 2019. The value, however, has risen 63% since 2020, following the real estate market trend, from an average price of 72,000 euros five years ago to close to 118,000 euros in 2024.

Read the full story in Diário de Notícias (paid access)