The Economist expects slow growth of the Portuguese economy by the end of 2016 – Jornal de Negócios – Portugal

The experts from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) believe that the growth of the Portuguese economy will remain slow until the end of 2016, penalized by the evolution of domestic consumption and investment.

Citing the latest data from the national Statistics Institute (INE) – showing that GDP grew 0.8% in the second quarter year on year and 0.2% compared to the previous three months – forecast and analysis unit of the British the Economist points out that, compared with the average of the European Union and the Eurozone, economic expansion in Portugal “was much weaker.”

“the growth in annual terms, was much lower than in Spain (3.2%) and Ireland (2.3%), as a result of weak domestic demand”, say the experts.

in view of the evolution of the national product in the first half of the year, the EIU expects real growth “is expected to remain weak in the remaining quarters of 2016″. “Although unemployment has fallen slowly, household demand remains limited by higher indirect taxes and the feeling of relatively poor consumers,” they add.