Exports worth 50% of GDP

Exports represented 50% of Portugal’s GDP in 2022 – a result not seem since 1987.

It means that targets defined by the Government have been achieved three years early, partly because of inflation and post-pandemic economic recovery.
According to data from Portugal’s national statistics body INE (INE – Instituto Nacional de Estatística), in 2022 Gross Internal Product (GDP) in accumulated terms saw a real growth of 6.7% on 2021, the highest growth since 1987.
With Euro Zone growth estimated at 3.5%, it was the second year running in which Portugal’s GDP grew above the Euro Zone average, and the sixth since 2016.
With a total export value of €119.8Bn (€81.3Bn in goods and €38.5Bn in services), the export component achieved 50% of GDP (33.9% in goods and 16.1% in services). These results reflect an 8.4% increase on 2021.
The increase in total export volume was €13.6Bn. Taking into consideration that the growth in GDP was €13.3Bn, corresponding to a real variation rate of 6.7%, it means that exports made a contribution towards economic growth of 6.9%.
With investment (Gross Capital Formation) contributing with 0.5%, private consumption with 3.7%, public consumption 0.4% and imports down 4.8%, exports made the largest contribution to economic growth for the second year running .
From the point of view of the Portuguese economy’s degree of openness to the rest of the world, it stood at 102.5%, the highest since statistics were compiled in 1995.

Image: Paul Teysen, Unsplash