GDP grew by 2.7% in 2017, while unemployment is falling rapidly.

On January 2018, Mario Centeno presided over his first meeting as the head of the Eurogroup. He worked for two years to revive the Lusitanian economy. The Portuguese finance minister boasts flawless results: in 2017, Portugal’s gross domestic product grew by 2.7%, the highest in seventeen years, according to official figures released on February 14th. This is more than the average recorded in the euro zone, at 2.5%.

“Portugal has become one of the leading European countries with dynamic growth” said Frédérique Cerisier, an economist at BNP Paribas. “All the engines of the economy are relaunched ; optimism is back in the household and business side”, says Diogo Teixeira of the Optimize fund in Lisbon.

Even better : the country is on a roll among foreign investors. “Since 2015, more and more international groups have been setting up service centers here, creating skilled jobs” welcomes the country’s investment agency AICEP.

SOURCE : LE MONDE