Published on 14 February 2018 at 12:27
LISBON, Feb 14 (Reuters) – Portugal’s economy grew last year at its fastest pace since 2000, less than four years after the end of the international bailout, partly due to an acceleration in exports compared to the last three months of 2017, the data showed, published by the National Institute. Statistics on Wednesday.
Over the past year as a whole, GDP rose by 2.7%, exceeding government expectations by a tenth of a point, after growth of 1.5% in 2016. Lisbon expects growth of 2.2% this year.
In the fourth quarter, growth reached 2.4% with annual variation as a first estimate, compared to 2.5% in the previous quarter, and 0.7% from one quarter to another after 0.5% in the previous quarter, in the period from July to September.
The National Institute of Statistics indicates that “this development results from an increase in the contribution of internal demand, which mainly reflects the acceleration of investment, while the contribution of net external demand remained the same as it was in 2016.”
Export growth was the main driver of the fourth quarter, while the contribution of internal demand and investment was weaker.
The now solid recovery has enabled the country to significantly reduce its budget deficit and emerge from excessive deficit measures initiated by the European Union last year.
The Portuguese government expects to reduce the budget deficit last year to about 1.2% of GDP, which is the lowest level since the Carnation Revolution in 1974, which ended the dictatorship and restored democracy to the country.
This year, it targets a deficit of 1.1% of GDP. (André Khalib-Claude Chendjoux for the French Service, Editing by Wilfried Exprayat)
