New economic data shows that Portugal is outperforming even the government’s forecasts.
Levels of investment backed by imports have seen the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development upgrade its provisions for economic growth by 0.9%, to 2.1% for 2017, as the organisation’s director of studies – former PSD minister for the economy Álvaro Santos Pereira – stresses that reforms adopted during the government in which he played a part are behind this good news.
RTP adds that the OECD’s forecast now tops that of the current government, which predicted a 1.8% growth for the economy this year.
Elsewhere, figures compiled by Eurostat show that Portugal’s GDP has grown at a higher rate than the average for the eurozone, coming in at 5th place with a full 1%.
The eurozone average for GDP growth for the first three months of this year was 0.6%, reports negocios online, stressing that increased investment once again was behind Portugal’s positive results.
The flip side to the picture is that for now the OECD sees growth levelling out next year, unlikely to rise more than 1.6%.
As RTP explains, the government is expecting an increase of 1.9%.
Santos Pereira did not rule this out entirely, however, saying he hoped his organisation was wrong and that “in a few months time” the OECD could once again upgrade its forecasts.
