Interconnected with the Panama Papers detailing the activities of companies set up by the law firm Mossack Fonseca but broader in scope, the Finance Ministry detailed how some €10.2 billion was transferred out of Portugal to tax havens worldwide over this same period of time.


Panama constantly remains in the top-5 on the list of preferred destinations for this capital flight and in 2010 ranked second with 351 individual transfers for a total of €531 million.


That year saw the Dutch Antilles lead the way as haven of choice with €770 million heading there with Luxembourg in third on €505 million followed by Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates on €386 million and €201 million respectively.


In the following year, Panama ranked third with Portuguese money totalling €547 million heading to the central American country before slipping back to fourth in 2012 and 2013 with transfers of €98 million and €105 million whilst its attractiveness as a destination slipped still further in 2014 when the country came in fifth with 158 transfers for only €19 million.


In 2014, Hong Kong topped the list for Portuguese financial transfers, raking in almost €163 million, followed by the Cayman Islands, the United Arab Emirates and Trinidad and Tobago that accounted for €51 million, €35 million and just under €25 million of transfers respectively.


The amounts getting squirreled away in such domains have also varied over the course of time with 2010 and 2011 representing the peak years with over €3 billion and €4 billion.


This then slipped back to €992 million in 2012, perked up to €1.1 billion in 2013 before slumping back to €373 million in 2014.