Portugal has more small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) than any other western European country, which explains many of the country’s difficulties. It also highlights some of the problems in all of Europe, particularly those underlying its sluggish growth compared with the US and Asia.
Portugal has 848,000 SMEs providing the country with 82 per cent of its employment and 68 per cent of its value added, according to the latest pan-European figures from 2005. That means it has 80 SMEs – classed as companies employing fewer than 250 people – for every 1,000 inhabitants.
