OECD revises Portugal’s projected economic growth upwards

Tourists pose for a selfie at the Nossa Senhora do Monte or “Our Lady of the Hill” viewpoint overlooking Lisbon

Portugal’s economy is expected to grow between 1.3 percent and 1.5 percent in 2015, reaching 2 percent in 2016, benefitting from a drop in oil prices and the devaluation of the euro, said Wednesday in Lisbon the Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic cooperation and Development (OECD).
“The growth of gross domestic product (GDP) reached 0.9 percent in 2014 and we expect it to total at least between 1.3 percent and 1.5 percent in 2015, and to keep this trend to close to 2 percent in 2016,” said Angel Gurría, during the public presentation of the “Strategy Skills for Portugal” report.
Cited by Portuguese news agency Lusa, the Secretary-General of the OECD said that the combination of factors such as lower oil prices, lower interest rates in the short and medium term and the drop in the value of the euro against other currencies had created, “potential for development and more dynamic growth for years to come.”
In its Economic Outlook, published on 25 November, the OECD said it expected growth of the Portuguese economy of 0.8 percent in 2014, below the government forecast of 1 percent, and a budget deficit of 4.9 percent, above the 4.8 percent forecast under the new European System of Accounts.
For 2015, the OECD projected growth of 1.3 percent and a budget deficit of 2.9 percent, and in both cases the forecasts were more pessimistic than those of the government by two tenths of a percentage point.
For 2016, and according to its Economic Outlook, the OECD forecast expects the Portuguese economy to grow faster and for GDP growth to reach 1.5 percent while the budget deficit would be reduced to 2.3 percent of GDP. MDT/Macauhub