Introduction to the Review of the Portuguese pension system

This chapter introduces the Review of the Portuguese pension system. This review provides policy recommendations on how to improve the Portuguese pension system, building on the OECD’s best practices in pension design.  The review describes the Portuguese pension system in great detail and identifies strengths and weaknesses based on cross-country comparisons. After economically painful years during the financial crisis and its aftermath, Portugal’s economy has recovered. While public debt remains at high levels, the labour market has made remarkable improvements over the last years, with strongly increasing employment rates and falling unemployment. Portugal’s demographic situation is challenging. The country’s population is ageing very rapidly and shrinking, among other things due to very low fertility rates.