PM predicts record foreign investment in 2021, ‘total liberation of society’ by summer’s end

  • Lusa
  • 20 July 2021

António Costa stressed that "all forecasts" indicate that between 2021 and 2022, the Portuguese economy could grow by around 9 percent.

The prime minister said on Tuesday that Portugal should reach group immunity by the end of the summer, “a very important moment for confidence and total liberation of society,” and predicts that records can be beaten this year in attracting investment.

At the ceremony to sign four investment tax contracts worth a total of 141 million euros, at the Belém Cultural Centre in Lisbon, António Costa stressed that “all forecasts” indicate that between 2021 and 2022, the Portuguese economy could grow by around 9 percent.

“It means that with the acceleration of the vaccination process we can look towards the end of this summer for group immunity and total liberation of society. We already have a set of investments underway that will ensure the sustained growth of the Portuguese economy, the maintenance of jobs and the creation of more and better jobs in the future, essential to absorb the unemployment created by the crisis,” he stressed.

On the other hand, the Prime Minister pointed out that 2019 had so far been the year in which the country broke the record for foreign direct investment.

“In terms of foreign direct investment, the contracts already supported by Aicep [Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade] are already 92% of the value of the best year ever, which was 2019. We are still in July, there is still a lot of work to do, there is still the opportunity that in 2021 we will beat the record of 2019,” he predicted.