An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission predicts the Portuguese economy will grow 1 percent this year. The forecast followed a two-week visit to the European nation by the mission’s representatives.
The latest forecast of the IMF was lower than its March projection of a 1.4-percent annual growth, the financial newspaper the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.
“While private consumption continued to expand robustly, investment and exports weakened, reflecting increased uncertainty and a sharp downturn in some markets for Portuguese goods,” the IMF mission said in a statement on Thursday. It noted the Portuguese economy only expanded 0.9 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year.
“Further measures to support spending restraint will likely be needed to ensure that this year’s fiscal target of 2.2 percent of GDP [gross domestic product] is achieved,” the mission added.
The Portuguese Finance Minister, Mário Centeno, said on Wednesday that the Government’s 1.8-percent growth forecast for 2016 could be at risk given the sharp slowdown in key markets for Portuguese exports, such as Angola, China and Brazil, the WSJ reported.