Currency In Portugal
The
Portugal currency is the Euro which came into affect in Portugal in 2002.
Before the Euro was introduced to Portugal the national currency was the
Escudo and you will often find that many of the older Portuguese population
still refer to the Escudo when discussing money between themselves,
especially when talking about larger amounts of money. The Escudos was
removed from circulation in 28 February 2002
Something that many foreigners find confusing is that the Portuguese write
the decimals after a comma and thousands are written before a point. To show
you what I mean six thousand would be written as 6.000 and 52,56€ would be
fifty two Euros and fifty six cents. It should be noted that the Euro sign
is always put after the numbers and not before as in the UK.
It is also common in Portugal to hear the locals mention the word 'Contos'.
This is the same as a thousand Escudos and is often used to describe larger
sums of money such as property prices.
There are seven different bank
notes that are widely circulated in Portugal and these are the five, ten,
twenty, fifty, one hundred, two hundred and five hundred Euro notes as well
as eight different coin denominations.
The designs on Portugal's Euro coins depict the first ever Portuguese king,
Don Afonso Henriques. There are a few Portuguese historians that claim that
the inscription on the edge of the €2 coin represent the locations that this
first king conquered and the five shields on the coin represent the Morisco
kings that he defeated in the legendary battle of Ourique.
The last recession saw an alarming dip in the value of the Portuguese
currency and this was mainly attributed to the public debt owed by the
Portuguese government and the whole Portuguese economy was seen as pretty
unstable but in the fragile economical period in 2009 Portugal was actually
one of the last EU countries to enter the recession.
As a rule, the Portuguese population have taken to The Euro extremely well
and the majority of people who move to Portugal do not have a problem with
it and it it is only really the English who don't already use it as an
everyday currency.
| |
|
|
|
You will find that you can withdraw up to €400 per day from
the many ATM machines which are known as multi-banco's and
are situated throughout Portugal. The onscreen instructions
always have an English option but once you have withdrawn
some money from once you won't really need to look at the
instructions again.
One thing to remember when making certain purchases in
Portugal is their version of VAT which is called IVA and is
currently charged at 20%. If you are spending less than 180
days in Portugal and are from a country outside of the
European Community you can reclaim the IVA that you have
paid by filling out the appropriate form and handing it into
to customs when you are leaving the country.
Thanks for looking
The Living In The Sun Team
X |
Home Contact
Us
About Articles Terms Privacy Affiliates
Blog
Algarve Direct
Online Shopping
Eating Out
Newsletter
all contents the property of Livinginthesun.info and
this is published by
Living In The Sun which is
responsible for its contents are further described in
the
terms section. It is written by
expats
that have
vast experience of
living in the sun.
You may have
found this page by searching for
expat,
british expats,
expats,
Algarve,
living in the sun,
living in Portugal.
This internet
website provides information of a general nature and is designed for
educational purposes only. If you have any concerns about the legalities
surrounding your own move you should consult a solicitor.
|
