Did Portugal record the biggest drop in GDP in the first quarter of 2021 in the entire European Union?
“About a year ago I entered here [na Assembleia da República] a State Budget that predicted a growth of 5.4% for this year. Well then, done, we know that probably let’s grow almost one percentage point and that this is due to the fact that Portugal had the worst decline in GDP in the first quarter“, said today Cecília Meireles, deputy of the CDS-PP, at the opening of the debate on general policy with Prime Minister António Costa and other members of the Government.
Are these two allegations of the deputy well founded?
Starting with the break in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2021, according to the Eurostat data, figured in -1.3% in the Eurozone and in -1.2% in the European Union.
Among the respective Member States, the biggest break was recorded in Portugal (-3.3%), followed by Slovakia (-2%), Germany (-1.8%) and Latvia (-1.7%).
As for the second claim, in fact, in the State Budget for 2021 it was expected GDP growth in 5.4% throughout this year. This growth forecast, however, must not come to fruition.
The Minister of Finance, João Leão, informed in September that the Government forecasts GDP growth “above 4.5%“in 2021. For its part, Banco de Portugal (BdP) points to a 4.8% increase.
In conclusion, Congresswoman Cecília Meireles presented factually correct data in the question to the Prime Minister.
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