It has been a year since economic activity grew so little
Data from the Bank of Portugal show that economic activity and private consumption hadn't grown this little since last year's February and January, respectively. Economic growth is slowing down.
Economic activity and private consumption decreased in January, according to coincident indicators disclosed this Friday by the Bank of Portugal. Concerning economic activity, growth was the slowest since February of 2017, while private consumption evolved at the lowest rate since January of last year.
According to data revealed by the Bank of Portugal, the indicator of the economic activity evolved to a 2.4% rate in January, prolonging a downward trajectory registered since September. The monthly coincident indicator for private consumption decreased for the third consecutive month from 2.1% in December to 2.0% in January of last year.
Coincident indicators are composite indicators that aim to capture the underlining evolution of the homologous variation of the respective macroeconomic aggregate. Numbers show, in sum, that the growth in the Portuguese economy has been slowing down — a tendency that should continue.
This tendency was already anticipated by Portuguese and European authorities. In 2017, the Portuguese economy grew 2.7%, and the Government foresees a growth standing between 2.3% and 2.4% this year. However, as INE disclosed this week, the quarter-on-quarter economic growth rhythm slowed down in the fourth quarter of 2017, from 2.5% to 2.4%.
