Minister of Finance

After taking office as Finance Minister in 2015, Centeno enacted policies which reversed some austerity policies from the Portuguese government-debt crisis (2010–2014). The new post-crisis situation allowed him to authorize a public pensions' rise and improved wage payment to civil servants as a way to "increase households’ disposable income", while insisting that European Union's budget rules must be respected.^[13] Early in his tenure, he urged the EU to acknowledge the scale of Portugal's economic turnround as the country headed towards its lowest fiscal deficit in more than 40 years^[14] and to remove Portugal from the group of countries subject to penalties for breaking the European Fiscal Compact.^[15] By the end of 2017, national opinion polls placed Centeno as the best-known and best-liked minister.^[16]

Mário Centeno at the informal meeting of economic and financial affairs ministers of the European Union, 2017.

In November 2017, Centeno submitted his formal application for succeeding Jeroen Dijsselbloem as the next chairman of the Eurogroup.^[17] On 4 December 2017, he was elected President of the Eurogroup, incumbent from 13 January 2018. Reportedly favored by an informal agreement between French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel,^[18] he defeated Pierre Gramegna of Luxembourg, Peter Kažimír of Slovakia and Dana Reizniece-Ozola of Latvia.^[19] His election carried particular symbolic weight because he is from one of the countries hardest hit by the debt crisis.^[20] He would serve a 2+1⁄2-year term,^[21] which is renewable. On 21 December 2017, he was appointed as chairman of the board of Governors of the European Stability Mechanism, effective from 13 January 2018.

Following the resignation of Christine Lagarde as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2019, Centeno was one of the candidates considered by European governments as potential successor; he withdrew his candidacy shortly after^[22] and the post went to Kristalina Georgieva instead.

Completely unknown to the public at the time he entered government as minister, Centeno had a reputation for economic liberalism in international academic circles because of his positions and research work in favour of greater labor market flexibility.^[23] However, during is tenure as Portuguese minister of finance (2015-2020), decades-long rigidity and inefficiency issues of the Portuguese labor market remained an unresolved problem hampering the Portuguese economy while the deepening of economic liberal policies in accordance with his positions and academic theories weren't put in place in a country persistently criticized by institutions and organizations like the OECD, the IMF and the European Union for its anti-market, labor movement-inspired labor laws and rules which promote overstaffing and the misallocation of factors of production in general.^{[24][25][26][27]}

In early 2020, the Parliament of Portugal followed Centeno's proposal and approved the country's first budget with a surplus in almost half a century^[28] in spite of the number of civil servants has increased for a sixth straight year.^[29][30] But an increasing deterioration of public services including in health, education and transportation infrastructure due to a lack of funding and government spending^[31][32] was perceptible^[33] while the country continued to fall behind in purchasing power and productivity in the context of the European Union,^[34][35] a feature that was associated with the persistent misallocation of capital, labor and skills.^[36] During Centeno's tenure as minister a record high tax burden was reached in Portugal.^[37]

By 2021, Portugal's GDP (PPP) was $36,381 per capita, according to OECD's report.^[38] It was the 4th lowest GDP per capita (PPP) of the eurozone out of 19 members, and the 8th lowest of the European Union out of 27 member-states,^[39] with several former economically disadvantaged Communist Bloc countries which in the meanwhile had become Eastern European member-states of the EU, nearly reaching or surpassing Portugal in terms of GDP (PPP) per capita around this date.^[40]

In 2021, labour productivity was the fifth lowest among the 27 member-states of the European Union (EU) and was 35% lower than the EU average.^[41][42] By 2022, the Portuguese productivity of labour (PPP) had fallen to the fourth lowest position among the 27 member-states of the European Union with only Bulgaria and Greece being clearly inferior to Portugal in that parameter.^[43]

Controversy

In early 2018, Centeno was being investigated for allegedly accepting S.L. Benfica tickets in exchange for a favourable tax treatment for a real-estate company owned by the son of Benfica president Luís Filipe Vieira.^[44][45] On 26 January 2018, Centeno's office was searched by the Portuguese police.^[44][45] On 1 February, prosecutors dropped the investigation, concluding there was "no crime of favoritism or any other (crime)" and that it has archived the case.^[46]