Portugal’s growth stands above European average, but it’s not the only one
Portugal had a 2.8% growth in the first quarter of 2017, but it's in the middle of the table in comparison to the remaining euro partners; concerning quarter-on-quarter growth, it comes in 5th place.
The Portuguese economy had a 2.8% growth in the first quarter of 2017 — an impressive percentage considering Portugal’s most recent history. However, within the Euro Area, the rhythm does not stand out as much. Although it is well above average, the Eurostat bulletin that discloses data from 16 Euro Area countries shows that Portugal comes in the middle of the list.
In the first quarter of 2017, the Portuguese GDP had a 2.8% increase in comparison to the same quarter of 2016 and a 1% increase in comparison to the three previous months of 2016. These percentages surpass the Euro Area average and show that Portugal is getting closer to its EU partners. The average homologous growth of the 16 Member States of the single currency Area (there is no data on Luxembourg, Ireland and Malta) was 1.9% and the quarter-on-quarter average growth was 0.6%.
Nonetheless, Portugal does not exactly stand out in the ranking. Overall, the European Union had a 2.1% homologous growth and Portugal stands in the middle of the list. As for the quarter-on-quarter comparison, Portugal comes in a better place: it was the fifth country with the largest growth. Latvia (1.6%), Slovenia (1.5%) and Lithuania (1.4%) are at the top of the list, followed by Finland (1.2%).
