Our sucess boils to a tourism increase (driven from political instability in other countries and a very laxed tax system for foreigners), cheap oil (that gave room to increase taxes on petrol) and historically low interest rates.
Do you think this is one of the reasons (or the major one) that so many Portuguese people live abroad? [1]
1. A culture built on world exploration. Our golden age myth is sailors leaving the country to find new lands. Our great epic book is "Os Lusíadas", a celebration of the discovery of a sea route to India by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama inspired by Virgil and Homer's epics.
2. Many people left the country between WW2 and 1974 (due to a ruling dictatorship, a colonial war, and economic difficulties). These were mostly uneducated people that went to France, Germany, Switzerland to become low wage workers.
3. A newer wave of emigration (of much more educated people) due to low salaries in Portugal. I know a lot of people (mostly engineers) that more than tripled their wage simply by moving to more developed countries: Germany, UK, Sweden... Similar to moving to SF/NY when you're in rural US.
Can you elaborate on what or how the tax system is very lax for foreigners?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18165995
As an anecdote, Madonna is nowadays living in Portugal. Media says the reasons are the Lisbon sunlight and her son wants to learn soccer.