LISBON — Behind the cheery yellow edifice that is this country’s Finance Ministry, where the news is not so cheery these days, Joaquim Marçalo’s waterfront grill is open for business, any business at all, seven days a week.

There was a time not so long ago when Mr. Marçalo could afford to close his restaurant, the Coffer, one day each week, he said; when he could afford a staff of 12, not 8; and when the daily take was around $2,000, not $1,000 to $1,200 or so. There was a time, too, when he paid a levy of just 6 percent on electricity and gas, not 23 percent; when public services were not being slashed; and when austerity was not the national watchword. With a shrug, though, Mr. Marçalo said, “It could be worse.”

That coolheaded assessment, on the lips of Portuguese everywhere, seems an apt summary of this country’s approach to the euro crisis, which last spring drove tiny Portugal into a $96 billion bailout and a painful austerity program.

The most optimistic projections point to a 3 percent contraction of the economy this year, after a 1.5 percent decline in 2011. Officially, unemployment is at 14.9 percent, its highest point in more than a decade, and more than 30 percent of the country’s young people are out of work. But some analysts suggest that the government is underestimating the true jobless rate, especially for youths, which they say may run as high as 40 or 45 percent.