The Portuguese economy is growing at a higher and sustainable pace, moving upwards in the value-added scale, exporting each year more technological goods, and is creating jobs - that’s the conclusion drawn from the statistics of 2007, referred by the Prime Minister José Sócrates and other members of the Government.
The 2007 economic growth was the highest from 2001: the growth rate was 1.9% in 2007 (in 2005 it was 0.9%) and sped up to 2.0% in the last quarter, despite international adverse circumstances - what is remarkable in the 14th most globalized country in the world.
And growth has been sustained by the private sector. The public sector had a negative contribution for growth. The State Budget deficit was reduced from 6.1% of the GDP in 2005 to under 3.0% in 2007 and the public spending in percentage of the GDP has also decreased. If Portugal had not to cut drastically the budget deficit, the Portuguese economy could be growing by 2.4 or 2.5%, according to economists calculations.
Portuguese exports grew 9% in 2006 and around 7% in 2007. Formerly, Portugal based its exports in traditional goods such as textile and shoes but nowadays exports business services and high and medium-high technology goods (these products grew from 23.2% of the Portuguese exports in 1986 to 42.8% in 2006). However, textile and shoes exports are growing again, now with Portuguese brands. Simultaneously, the Portuguese exporters have been able to diversify their markets beyond the traditional main buyers, with significant growth in the cases of Angola and Russia.
The Portuguese economy is changing quickly - for the first time in 2007 Portugal has had a positive Technological balance. The international and domestic investment continued to grow mainly in what concerns machinery and equipment. Public investment in Science grew and will be over 1% of the GDP in 2008. Simultaneously, more that 6% of the working population (360 000 in an active population of 5.2 million) is following qualification programmes.
The unemployment start decreasing in the 2nd quarter of 2007: it was 8.4% in the 1st quarter of the year but was curved down to 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Between December 2006 and December 2007 the number of unemployed was reduced by 19 000 - the first time with such an important difference. Since 2005, the Portuguese economy has created 94 000 jobs. The PM thinks the Government will fulfil one of its more important goals: to create 150 000 jobs during its 4-year term.