Economy growing at more than 6% in 2022

  • Lusa
  • 14 September 2022

"The increase in GDP will exceed our April expectations and should reach more than 6% this year," said the finance minister Fernando Medina.

Portugal’s finance minister, Fernando Medina, said on Wednesday that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to grow above 6%, reiterating that the economy’s resilience is in a context of “right accounts”.

“The increase in GDP will exceed our April expectations and should reach more than 6% this year,” said Fernando Medina, during a regimental hearing at the Budget and Finance Committee (COF) in parliament.

In his opening speech before COF members, Fernando Medina reiterated the target of reducing public debt to below 120% of GDP and that he would comply with the reduction of the deficit to 1.9%.

“The accounts remain correct. This is a guarantee of security for the future and which we will not – and cannot – give up,” said the finance minister, who, in response to PSD member of parliament Hugo Carneiro, said that “the Portuguese economy is not growing above the European Union average, it is growing above each of the European Union countries.”

When presenting measures to mitigate the impact of price rises on family income, the minister said that the government was working with a GDP growth rate for this year of 6.4%, an upward revision from the previously expected 4.9%.

In the budget proposal for 2022, delivered in April to parliament, the government forecast economic growth of 4.9% this year, a slight downward revision (0.1 percentage points) compared to the macroeconomic scenario presented in the Stability Programme.

In the budget for 202022, public debt is expected to fall this year to 120.7% of GDP.