Economic activity in Portugal starts October to grow close to 3% compared to 2020
Accelerating in some weeks, slowing down in others, in a more uncertain behavior, but always continuing to grow compared to last year. This has been the evolution of the Portuguese economy in recent weeks, signals the daily economic activity indicator (DEI), published by the Bank of Portugal (BdP), data were included this Thursday.
According to a note from the BdP, published on its website, in the week ending October 3rd, the DEI – a composite indicator that seeks to draw, almost in real time, a picture of the evolution of economic activity in the country – “evolved online with the previous weeks”.
An analysis of the figures for this week, published by the central bank – which covers the period between September 27 and October 3 -, indicates a year-on-year growth in economic activity in Portugal of 2.8%. A figure that is below the 4.8% of the previous week, but above the 2.3% registered in the week ending September 19th.
It should be remembered that credit defaults in Portugal ended at the end of September, and some economists have already expressed concern about the impact that can be felt on the dynamics of recovery of the Portuguese economy after the pandemic crisis.
Now, they warn, the proof of nine arrives. However, it is still too early to assess whether the DEI suffers from this factor. At the same time, this week the governor of Banco de Portugal, Mário Centeno, sent a message of “tranquility” regarding the end of credit defaults.
As for the biennial DEI rate, which indicates the accumulated growth in this indicator over the last two years, that is, between 2019 and 2021, it returned to negative territory in the week ending October 3 (-2.9%). This means that the Portuguese economy will have operated this week below the same period in 2019, that is, the pre-crisis level. This when in the previous week this value had been positive, at 2.1%.
The DEI summarizes a set of quantitative and daily frequency information, such as road traffic of heavy commercial vehicles on highways, consumption of electricity and natural gas, cargo and mail unloaded at national airports and purchases made with cards in Portugal by residents and non-residents. Therefore, it makes it possible to draw, almost in real time, a picture of the evolution of economic activity in the country.