Consumption and exports accelerate, but investment falls more – the Public.en

it Is mainly the acceleration of exports and the fact that they are increasing by more than imports, which explains the pace of growth of the Portuguese economy in the third quarter at 1.6% year-on-year and 0.8% compared to the previous three months. But not only that. The contribution of domestic demand to the variation in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) also increased to the ride of a rise in private consumption in the country.

The values of the growth are already known for the last 15 days, but to publish on Wednesday the Quarterly National Accounts the National Institute of Statistics (INE) presents a more detailed way a set of data that help view the evolution of the GDP.

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The growth "the most intense of GDP reflected mainly the increase in the contribution of net external demand". The year on year growth of 1.6%, up 0.7 points due to external demand, or exports minus imports. In the previous quarter, the economy had grown by 0.9%, its weight was only 0.1 points.

Already, the domestic demand (consumption plus investment) amounted to 0.9 points of GDP in the period from July to September, when in the previous three months was 0.8 points (in a range of 0.9%).

families (residents in Portugal) are consuming more, increasing the contribution of domestic demand to the growth rate of GDP".

private consumption (what is spent on final consumption by the citizens) increased by 1.9% from July to September compared to the same period of last year, progressing at a pace that was more celebrated than in the previous three months (0.3 percentage points above).

The acceleration, explains the INE, is due to the increase of purchases of non-durable goods and services, that presented an annual variation of 1.5% (1% in the previous quarter). Although the consumption of durable goods is growing much more, slowed down in relation to the pace of the previous three months, "moving from an annual variation of 7.9% in the second quarter to 6.2% reflecting, to a large extent, the evolution of component car".

which continues the negative is the investment, which shrank by 3.1% in terms of year-on-year fell more than in the previous three months, which represents a decrease of 2.3% in comparison year-onyear. In the investment, accounts for the gross fixed capital formation but also the so-called "change in inventories", which corresponds to the difference between the inputs and outputs of raw materials, products in progress or goods intended for resale, for example.

THE INE stresses that this result was "conditioned negatively by the disinvestment in the domestic economy associated with the export of military equipment" (F-16) for Romania in the amount of 70 million euros. Because statistically the equipment is counted as fixed capital, when there is a sale abroad – as happened in this case, its value counts as export (and translates into disinvestment in the figures for gross fixed capital formation, in the same way that would count as investment – and import – if it were otherwise). In any case, vinca INE, "the impact on GDP is approximately null at the time of the transaction".

As to the exports, which were up 5.4% in the third quarter compared with the same period of 2015, when in the previous three months had risen just 1.8%, the acceleration "was common to the components of goods and services". Imports also began to grow more, but still continue to move forward at a pace that is lower than the sales of goods and services (increased by 3.5% year-on-year, after a growth of 1.4% in the second quarter).