Portugal had the second highest GDP growth in the European Union in the first quarter of 2023 according to a back of the envelope estimate from Eurostat on Tuesday.

Only Poland enjoyed higher growth than Portugal, with 3.9% with Portugal at 1.6%. The UK, which is outside the EU only has 0.1% growth.
Overall, the Euro Zone grew 0.1% on average on the last quarter of last year, while EU GDP increased 0.2%, a figure that had been revised downward from the 0.3% initially forecast the end of April.
As has already been forecast by the Portuguese national statistics institute (INE), Portugal’s GDP has grown 1.6% MoM since the start of the year which surprised economists. The recovery was to a large measure down to positive tourism numbers and exports results which had been better than expected.
The only other EU country that managed growth of over 1% since the start of 2023 is Finland with 1.1%.
On the other hand, compared for the like-for-like period in 2022, Portugal has fallen to 4th position in terms of economic growth, with GDPat 2.5%. Ireland, Spain, Cyprus and Romania posted higher increases when the comparison is made with the first quarter of 2022.
The EU forecasts that Portugal’s GDP should grow 2.4% this year, which is double the average of the EU according to Paolo Gentiloni, the European Commissioner for the Economy.

Minister of the Economy, António Costa Silva: Lusa – António Cotrim.