The portuguese capital market during World War II

• Autor(a) principal: Valério, Nuno
• Data de Publicação: 2005
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/828
• topic: Economic History; Capital Market; Second World War

During the Second World War, the Portuguese capital market was characterized by a glut of savings opportunities and a shortage of investment opportunities. The glut of savings opportunities was caused by surpluses in the balance of payments, which resulted from Portugal's neutrality and its capacity to supply valuable commodities. The shortage of investment opportunities derived from the economy's overall stagnant performance and the lack of adequate supplies from abroad. As a consequence, there was a downward trend in interest rates, despite the increase in price levels, and investors concentrated on public bonds and construction. It may, however, be argued that this process acted as a kind of prior accumulation of funds before the take-off of modern economic growth that was to occur in the Portuguese economy during the post- war years.