Reports

Skills are central to Portugal’s future prosperity and the well-being of its people. The OECD Skills Strategy Diagnostic Report: Portugal identifies 12 skills challenges for Portugal. The first nine challenges refer to specific outcomes across the three pillars of developing, activating and using skills. The next three challenges refer to the 'enabling' conditions that strengthen the overall skills system. Success in tackling these skills challenges will boost performance across the whole skills system. All of the challenges identified are strongly interlinked, and their connections with each other are identified throughout the report at the end of each challenge. Failure to look beyond policy silos will have implications for specific groups in Portugal, such as youth, as well as for the economy and society’s ability to recover after the economic crisis and build a solid foundation for future prosperity.

This report contains the 2014 'Phase 2: Implementation of the Standards in Practice' Global Forum review of Portugal. The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes is the multilateral framework within which work in the area of tax transparency and exchange of information is carried out by over 120 jurisdictions which participate in the work of the Global Forum on an equal footing. The Global Forum is charged with in-depth monitoring and peer review of the implementation of the standards of transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes. These standards are primarily reflected in the 2002 OECD Model Agreement on Exchange of Information on Tax Matters and its commentary, and in Article 26 of the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital and its commentary as updated in 2004, which has been incorporated in the UN Model Tax Convention. The standards provide for international exchange on request of foreseeably relevant information for the administration or enforcement of the domestic tax laws of a requesting party. 'Fishing expeditions' are not authorised, but all foreseeably relevant information must be provided, including bank information and information held by fiduciaries, regardless of the existence of a domestic tax interest or the application of a dual criminality standard. All members of the Global Forum, as well as jurisdictions identified by the Global Forum as relevant to its work, are being reviewed. This process is undertaken in two phases. Phase 1 reviews assess the quality of a jurisdiction’s legal and regulatory framework for the exchange of information, while Phase 2 reviews look at the practical implementation of that framework. Some Global Forum members are undergoing combined – Phase 1 plus Phase 2 – reviews. The ultimate goal is to help jurisdictions to effectively implement the international standards of transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes.

Having been hit hard by the global crisis, the Portuguese government has taken action to put its economy back on track, and to correct external and budgetary imbalances. Public finances have strengthened, and the current account deficit has closed on the back of gains in competitiveness and improvements in export performance. Portugal has also been able to reduce income inequality and relative poverty, a major accomplishment during a severe crisis with record levels of unemployment. As Portugal successfully exits the EU-IMF-ECB-supported programme and emerges from recession, it is more important than ever to build on these achievements. At the request of the Portuguese authorities, the OECD has carried out an assessment of the impact of the reforms implemented to date on the economy’s longer-term growth outlook. The analysis is based on OECD indicators of the restrictiveness of Product Market Regulation (PMR) and the strictness of Employment Protection Legislation (EPL). It updates the OECD report Portugal: Reforming the State to Promote Growth, published in 2013. According to the OECD’s Going for Growth exercise, Portugal is among the OECD countries with the best recent track record of responsiveness to structural reform recommendations. The reforms undertaken since 2009 to promote competition in product markets and enhance the dynamism of the labour market are expected to raise productivity and potential GDP by at least 3.5% by 2020.

Drawing on the OECD’s expertise in comparing country experiences and identifying best practices, the Better Policies series tailors the OECD’s policy advice to the specific and timely priorities of member and partner countries, focusing on how governments can make reform happen.

Les gouvernements sont parmi les principaux émetteurs de titres d’emprunt sur le marché mondial des capitaux. Le présent volume fournit des informations quantitatives sur les titres d’emprunt d’État pour les 34 pays membres de l'OCDE en vue de répondre aux besoins analytiques des utilisateurs tels que les pouvoirs publics, les spécialistes de la gestion de la dette et les analystes de marché. Les statistiques sont présentées selon un plan d’ensemble normalisé pour permettre une comparaison entre les différents pays. Les notes méthodologiques par pays donnent des informations sur les émissions de titres d’emprunt dans chacun des pays, ainsi que sur le cadre institutionnel et réglementaire dans lequel s’inscrivent la politique de gestion de la dette et les techniques de vente.

Ce livre propose des évaluations indépendantes des progrès accomplis par Portugal eu égard à ces engagements nationaux et internationaux en matière d’environnement, ainsi que des recommandations orientées vers l’action des pouvoirs publics. Ces examens ont pour objectif de promouvoir l’apprentissage entre pairs, d’encourager les pays à rendre compte de leur action aux autres pays et à leur opinion publique, ainsi que d’améliorer les performances environnementales des gouvernements, individuellement et collectivement. Les analyses s’appuient sur un large éventail de données économiques et environnementales. Des informations complémentaires sur le programme d’examens environnementaux de l'OCDE peuvent être obtenues en ligne à l’adresse suivante : www.oecd.org/env/examenspays.