Economy in sharp March decline

Economic activity in Portugal suffered a sharp decline in the first week of March on the last week in February.

The Bank of Portugal foresees the continuation of the deterioration in the Portuguese economy after the first week of March revealed a sharper fall than the previous week in February.
Following the strong impact on the economy of the lockdown decreed in the middle of January, the data indicates that the economy recovered somewhat in the first weeks of February, staying, however, in negative territory.
However, this period in which the pressure was slightly relieved, saw a downwards turn at the end of February and deteriorated in the first week in March.
By 7 March, the like-for-like fall was 15.2%, with an average weekly contraction on 4 March of 10.2% on the previous week, which exceeded values seen in January (the maximum had been -9.8%).
Despite a deterioration in the curve at the start of March, the BoP says that this contraction of the economy in the first three months of 2021, caused by the second confinement was more comparable with the fourth quarter of 2020, rather than with the second quarter of 2020, the period of the first confinement.
The European Commission points to a quarter-on-quarter contraction of Portugal’s GDP of 2.1% for the first quarter of this year which, if they are correct, will be the greatest fall out of all the 27 Member States, while the Forum for Competitiveness points to a fall of 6%.