Portugal grows more than the Eurozone average in 2025

Portugal ended 2025 with an economic performance above the European average, confirming the growth trend that has marked recent quarters, despite the slowdown compared to the 2.1% recorded in 2024.

According to data published on Friday by Eurostat, in a flash estimate, the Eurozone grew by 1.5% and the European Union by 1.6% last year, compared to 1.9% for the national economy.

Data from the European Union’s statistics office and INE reveal that, in the fourth quarter of last year, the Portuguese economy grew by 1.9% year-on-year, maintaining the pace compared to 2.3% in the previous quarter. This performance places Portugal clearly above the Eurozone average, which grew 1.3% year-on-year in the same period, and the European Union, with 1.4%.

In chain terms, national GDP grew by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, matching the pace of Spain and standing out from the other major European economies. The Eurozone recorded quarterly growth of 0.3%, the same figure as the European Union.

Among the major European economies, Spain remained the engine of growth, with an expansion of 2.8% for 2025 as a whole. In the fourth quarter, the Spanish economy accelerated to quarterly growth of 0.8% and year-on-year growth of 2.6%, sustained by robust domestic demand and increased purchasing power among workers.

• Spain’s performance contrasts with the stagnation of other major economies in the bloc. Germany, the Eurozone’s largest economy, recorded annual growth of just 0.2% in 2025, after contracting 0.5% in 2024. In the fourth quarter, the German economy surprised on the upside with quarterly growth of 0.3%, above expectations of 0.2%, but year-on-year growth stood at 0.6%.
• France grew by 0.9% in 2025 as a whole, a slowdown from 1.1% in 2024. In the last quarter of the year, the French economy expanded by 0.2% in quarterly terms, slowing down after the strong 0.5% recovery recorded in the third quarter, which had been boosted by the Paris Olympic Games.
• Italy, meanwhile, recorded growth of 0.7% in 2025. In the fourth quarter, the Italian economy accelerated with quarterly growth of 0.3% and year-on-year growth of 0.8%, supported by domestic consumption and offsetting weaker exports.

Outside the major economies, some Eastern European and Baltic countries maintained robust growth rates. This is the case for Lithuania and the Czech Republic, which recorded year-on-year growth of 2.5% and 2.4% in the fourth quarter, respectively.

However, the star of European growth in 2025 was Ireland, which, despite entering a technical recession at the end of 2025, with GDP contracting by 0.6% in the fourth quarter compared to the previous quarter – the second consecutive contraction after -0.3% in the third quarter – closed the year with growth of 12.6%.

This apparent contradiction can be explained by the extraordinary expansion recorded at the beginning of the year, when Irish GDP soared 20% in the first quarter of 2025, driven by pharmaceutical exports to the US, particularly diabetes and obesity drugs, in a logic of frontloading ahead of possible trade tariffs.

The final data on European economic growth in the fourth quarter will be published on 13 February.