Financialisation of pensions in semi-peripheral Portugal

Abstract

This article aims at contributing to the literature on the financialisation of pensions in Europe by examining the transformations occurring in semi-peripheral Portugal. The Portuguese case accounts for the variegated nature of financialisation in general, and of pension provision in particular, throughout Europe. While the country followed similar processes to those of core European Union (EU) countries, leading to an increasingly integrated financial sector in the international arena, this integration was mainly led by the banking sector rather than by capital markets. This helps account for the relatively reduced role of private retirement income products in the country. Nonetheless, the Portuguese pension system has been equally subject to reform, aiming at reducing its weight in public expenditure. The result is a contraction in coverage and benefit without achieving an equivalent match in supplementary private forms of pension provision. Under a prolonged period of stagnation and crisis, the deterioration of State pensions for the majority continues while a residual private, outward-oriented and foreign-owned pension sector grows for the most affluent, further exposing the systemic and variegated nature of financialisation processes in the semi-periphery.