Portugal’s growth surpasses EU average

The Portuguese economy grew by 0.5% in the second trimester relative to the first three months of 2019, maintaining the same growth pace shown at the beginning of the year as well as exceeding the EU’s growth average. Among the 21 countries listed, Portugal is still growing less than 10 other economies, such as Spain’s and the Netharlands’. However, the major European economies are decelerating, pressuring stock exchanges across Europe all day today.

Uncertainty and tensions in trade are now starting to cause harm among European economies as economic growth suffers the effects. In the second trimester of the year, the Eurozone’s average growth rate decreased from 0.4% to 0.2% and the EU’s, as a whole, from 0.5% to 0.2%.

At the beginning of 2018, the various EU leaders argued the economic deceleration would be just temporary, but the evolution of the geopolitical panorama with rising tensions between the US and China made that deceleration seem more consistent and permanent, pushing major EU economies to a contraction scenario.

This Wednesday, the German National Institution of Statistics announced that the German economy contracted 0.1% in the second trimester of the year. This could be just an isolated episode, but there are other daunting facts to be taken seriously. Data collected over the last 12 months show that the German economy – the EU’s largest – is decelerating since the end of 2017 as this is the 3rd trimester in a row that annual growth is below 1%. In the second trimester of 2019, that growth rate dropped to 0.4%.

But it’s not just the German economy. The Brexit-related instability allied to an even greater political uncertainty is pushing the UK to a contraction of 0.2%. France, for instance, only grew by 0.2% in the second trimester – the second trimester in a row of deceleration. Italy’s economy remains stagnated, registering a single trimester of shy growth over the last 12 months. Spain is one of the major EU economies that resists showing a solid growth rate, but the country is starting to show some signs of deceleration due to its very own political instability. Recall that Pedro Sanchez failed to form a Portuguese-inspired government solution in the Spanish Congress.

Portugal is performing better than the rest

The Portuguese economy maintains a stable growth rate of 1.8%, converging with the rest of Eurozone. The country has been even able to match both Spain and the Netherlands, ranking 11th in the list.

With the major economies showing concerning signs of deceleration, it was due to the growth rates of smaller countries, like Portugal, that the EU keeps registering positive growth rates.

Hungary was the only economy capable of registering a growth rate above 1%, but countries like Poland, Finland, Denmark and Latvia also registered significant growth rates.