Portugal Statutory legal interest (juros legais)
Portugal Statutory legal interest (juros legais) is 4 percent, in force since 1 May 2003. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.
Portugal's civil legal interest rate: a fixed 4% per annum set by Portaria n.º 291/2003 under Código Civil art. 559(1), unchanged since 1 May 2003 and applying to non-commercial money obligations.
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| Current value | 4 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2003-05-01 |
| Official source | Portaria n.º 291/2003, de 8 de Abril, n.º 1.º: 'A taxa anual dos juros legais e dos estipulados sem determinação de taxa ou quantitativo é fixada em 4%' (the annual rate of legal interest, and of interest stipulated without a determined rate or amount, is fixed at 4%); made 'ao abrigo do n.º 1 do artigo 559.º do Código Civil' by the Ministers of Finance and Justice, revoking Portaria n.º 263/99, and n.º 3.º: 'produz efeitos a partir do dia 1 do mês seguinte ao da sua publicação' |
| Last verified | 2026-08-10 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
This is the GENERAL CIVIL rate — the taxa de juros legais. Código Civil art. 559(1) puts the fixing in the hands of the Ministers of Finance and Justice by joint portaria; art. 806 makes it the measure of damages for delay in paying a money obligation where no rate was agreed. Fixed at 4% since 1 May 2003 (Portaria 291/2003 was published 8 April 2003 and took effect on the 1st of the following month) and unchanged since — there is no reference rate, no indexation and no periodic review; it moves only when a new joint portaria is published in the Diário da República, which can happen at any time and has not happened in over two decades. DO NOT USE FOR COMMERCIAL DEBTS: Portugal runs two separate and much higher commercial rates, both announced half-yearly by the Direção-Geral do Tesouro e Finanças as an Aviso in the Diário da República (Série II) and effective 1 January and 1 July — one for commercial transactions under Decreto-Lei n.º 62/2013 (the Late Payment Directive transposition, ECB reference rate + 8 percentage points), served separately as this API's late-payment-interest product, and a lower one for other commercial credits under Código Comercial art. 102 § 3 (ECB reference rate + 7 percentage points). A creditor of a company will almost always be on one of those, not on the 4%. SEPARATE 5% JUDGMENT SURCHARGE: Código Civil art. 829.º-A(4) adds a compulsory 5% per annum on top, running from the date a money judgment becomes final — it is a coercive surcharge, not this rate. Tax and social-security arrears run on their own juros de mora rate set under the Lei Geral Tributária, again not this figure. NEXT FIXING: none scheduled; the rate holds until a new portaria conjunta under art. 559(1) is gazetted.
Get it programmatically
curl https://euroref.dev/v1/pt/statutory-interest
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://euroref.dev/v1/pt/statutory-interest/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://euroref.dev/provenance/pt/statutory-interestOther Portugal series: Policy Rate (ECB Deposit Facility Rate) · Value Added Tax (Imposto sobre o Valor Acrescentado - IVA) · VAT registration threshold · minimum wage · Public Holidays (Feriados obrigatorios) · inflation rate (CPI) · corporate tax rate · Withholding tax rates · income tax rates · Statutory social-insurance contributions · ECB main refinancing operations rate (fixed rate) · Late-payment interest (EU Late Payment Directive)
The same figure elsewhere: Romania · Serbia · Slovakia · Slovenia · Spain · all 34