Divorce usually costs people dearly (more often than not it’s the men who end up paying more) but the economy in Portugal is suffering just as much. According to details released by the Portuguese National Statistics Institute, one third of all outstanding debt to banks in Portugal is as a result of failed marriages and divorces.

So far this year, from January through to May, banks in Portugal had 2.59 billion Euros owed to them. Around 800 million of those Euros were through divorce.

Data also shows that in 2006, almost half of all marriages in the country ended in divorce, 48 out of 100. This figure was the highest in Europe for the year.

Luís Marques is the director-general for Genworth Financial:

The risk is very high.

One third of all bank debt is due to divorce, the other two thirds being mostly caused by unemployment and illness.

Clive Bellmore