Economy maintains growth momentum in the second quarter – publico

                 

                         
                     

                 

 
                         

The Portuguese economy maintained between April and June the growth rate registered in the first three months of the year, with domestic demand to boost economic performance and increased imports to give a “significant negative contribution” shows data published on Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

                     

                          The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased 0.4% in chain, a variation equal to that in the previous two quarters (the last in 2014 and the first this year). Compared to the same period last year, growth was 1.5%, a variation rate also identical to the first three months of the year.

Looking at the chain values, the data confirm the economy is growing for five consecutive quarters, or since the first three months of last year. When the comparison is made on-year growth without interruption remains positive since the last quarter of 2013, trajectory that followed a sharp contraction of the economy.

For the full year, the Government is forecasting a growth rate of 1.6% compared to 2014, next projection of values ​​now revealed.

The INE presents only a quick estimate, not disclosing values ​​for the different components of GDP, that just happen to August 31. However, explains that the performance of the economy was based more on domestic demand, hitchhiking investment and consumption than in external demand.

“The positive contribution of domestic demand [sum of private consumption, consumption and public investment] increased in the second quarter, reflecting the acceleration of investment (mainly due to the contribution from changes in inventories, which went from negative to positive in the previous quarter) and, to a lesser extent, private consumption. ” Since external demand (net exports of imports) had “a significant negative contribution to the annual GDP growth, verifying an acceleration of imports of goods and services at a faster pace than exports.”

The latest industry data show a fall of 2.1% in production in June compared with the previous month (it was the largest monthly decline in the euro area), but an increase of 2% compared to June last year ( which represents a slowdown compared to the same increase of 3.6% recorded in May).

As for international trade, was registered in the second quarter an increase of 7.4% in exports, a lower rate than that are growing imports, arriving at 9%.

Euro zone increased by 1.2%
In the euro zone, the group of 19 economies grew 1.2% compared with the same period last year. In relation to the previous quarter, the variation was 0.3%, which represents a slowdown compared to the performance in the previous two quarters.

In the largest economy of the single currency, Germany, GDP accelerated face the performance observed by March. The economy rose 0.4% in chain (where the first quarter had grown 0.3%), reaching a growth of 1.6% year on year after progressing 1.1%. France stagnated in the first three months of the year, but managed to register a growth of 1% over the second quarter 2014.