Portugal: Fourth largest European drop in GDP

  • Lusa
  • 31 July 2020

Portugal's GDP fell 16.5% in the second quarter of 2020, representing the fourth largest decline in the eurozone.

The eurozone economy contracted by 15% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit hard, with Portugal recording the fourth largest decline, Eurostat reported on Friday.

According to the preliminary quick estimate released by Eurostat today, in the second quarter of this year, when the containment measures for covid-19 adopted by member states had the greatest impact on the economy, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell 15% in the eurozone and 14.4% in the European Union (EU) as a whole compared to the same period in 2019.

Spain (-22.1%) was the European country with the greatest year-on-year decline, followed by France (-19%) and Italy (-17.3%).

According to this data from the Community Statistics Office, Portugal had, in this period, the fourth sharpest fall, sinking 16.5%.

On the other hand, Quarter-on-Quarter, the Portuguese GDP fell 14.1%.

Still in comparison with the previous quarter, between April and June, GDP fell 12.1% in the euro zone and 11.9% in the EU.

The Community Statistical Office notes that this quarterly reduction represents “by far the sharpest declines observed since the beginning of the time series in 1995”, which compares with more contained GDP falls of 3.6% in the euro zone and 3.2% in the EU in the first quarter of 2020.

Eurostat nevertheless points out that these are preliminary and still incomplete estimates, which will be updated in mid-August.