The Portuguese economy surprises with growth of 1.6% in the third quarter – Jornal de Negócios – Portugal

The gross domestic product (GDP) has advanced 1.6% in the third quarter of this year compared to the same period of 2015, showed the data published by the INE. Chain, the economy grew by 0.8%.

According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), this good result was mainly due to a stronger pickup in exports than in imports. In addition, domestic demand also gave a more positive contribution to the GDP, a reflection of more consumption of non-durable goods by households.

The performance of the national economy hit so the estimates of the analysts. The most optimistic pointed to an increase of 1.3%, while the most pessimistic expected a variation of only 1%.

Compared to the previous quarter – the chain – the GDP advanced by 0.8%. A significant acceleration compared to the first six months of the year, when it grew 0.3% in each of these two quarters.

“Compared with the second quarter, the GDP increased by 0.8% in real terms (0.3% in the previous quarter),” writes the INE. “The contribution of net external demand was positive, reflecting the strong increase in exports of goods and services, while domestic demand recorded a negative contribution.”

This is the largest variation of the GDP for the third quarter of last year, which marked the beginning of the slowdown of the national economy, which lasted until the middle of this year. In an analysis chain, this is the best result since the fourth quarter of 2013.

This is the quick estimate of GDP of INE, that only gives us the value of the variation, and a qualitative assessment of the behavior of the items. Within two weeks we will know exactly what impact did each of the headings.

The economists heard by Lusa anticipate a growth of 0.3% compared to the previous three , and 1.1% on the previous year.

This performance of the economy comes after, between April and June, the national economy has grown by 0.9% yoy and 0.3% in the chain. The same values that had already been observed in the first quarter of the year.

it is recalled that the Government predicted an economic growth of 1.8% for 2016, having revised this value strongly in low to 1.2%, when he presented the State Budget for 2017.

behind the greater pessimism around the economy is domestic demand that is not evolving at the pace that the Government had designed. The investment, in particular, presented some of the worst numbers in recent years, with two contractions in succession in the first and second quarter of the year.

(news updated at 10:05 with more information)