The Minister of Finance has welcomed the upward revision of growth forecasts for the Portuguese economy for this year, noting that Portugal “will come out of the pandemic process with a level of global growth above countries such as Spain, Italy, Germany and France” — “and for several of them, with very significant differences”.

“Portugal is the country that presents the highest growth in the Euro Zone in 2022”, highlighted Fernando Medina, at the Budget and Finance Committee of the Assembly of the Republic, referring to the upward revision by Brussels of the forecasts for the growth of Portugal's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022, from 5.8% to 6.5%, adding that estimates point to “a very significant and important resilience of the Portuguese economy”.

“It is evident that there are signs of a slowdown for 2023, but the data also shows for Portugal a growth above the Euro Zone”. It is recalled that for the next year, Brussels revised downwards the forecasts of Portuguese economic growth from 2.7% to 1.9%. Fernando Medina attributes this growth, to a large extent, to the fact that Portugal has grown “less when other countries have grown more”.

In this sense, the Minister of Finance highlights that the country “will emerge from the pandemic process” with “a growth rate above the European average”, even “above countries such as Italy, Spain, Germany and France”, for which, in in some cases, “there are very significant differences”.

As for inflation, and at a time when Brussels points to an inflation rate of 6.8% for this year in Portugal and 3.6% for 2023, the official underlines that despite “being above what we are used to”, Portugal will also be in this indicator below the Euro Zone. “For 2023 there is a significant drop”, he concluded.