António Costa: Between 2016 and 2019 “Portugal grew seven times more than in previous years.” Is it confirmed?
In the role of prime minister and for the first time with an absolute majority, Antonio Costa opened the debate on the Government’s Program, this Thursday, with “socialist” topics for the entire legislature, thus justifying the absence of a short-term vision for a response to the crisis. Costa also recalled that he came to stay at the end, contrary to what was suggested by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and said: “We have never abandoned the Portuguese, it is not now that we will.”
In addition, the first speech this Thursday and António Costa served to remind the socialists, made a point of repeating what he sometimes had: That the country has already grown seven times more between 2016 and 2019 than in the previous 14 years:
“Portugal, has the approach of growing and only the pandemic I the trajectory of, which we resumed and that we continue in 2016 years and we are already until 2016 and 2016. Portugal has even grown seven times more than in the previous 14 years. The government obviously wants more and the Portuguese naturally demand more.”
The words are almost the same as those used by Costa on January 10, when he said that the Portuguese economy grew seven times more between 2016 and 2019 than in the 15 years prior to that period. “When we turn the page of austerity, in 2016, we also turn the page of stagnation. After 15 long years of anemic growth and our economy grew 2.8% under my government”, highlighted the prime minister.
Analyzing the Dice compiled in Pordata we verified that the real GDP growth rate between 2016 and 2019 was, on average, 2.77 percentage points, and in none of the years was there a drop (2.02% in 2016, 3.51% in 2017, 2.85% in 2018 and 2.69% in 2019). Even so, the previous years were not as prosperous and, between 2002 and 2015 (the 14 years that preceded the arrival of António Costa), successive variations variations in the real growth rate of GDP.
As an example, between 2011 and 2013 GDP always fell, with a more significant decline in 2012 (4.06%), the largest in that time interval and also in the 14 years mentioned by Costa. Adding all these percentages together, the average real GDP growth rate between 2002 and 2015 was only about 0.1 percentage points. This means that, between 2016 and 2019, the country grew approximately 28 times more than in the 14 years prior to that period.
Even if we include the year 2001 (and we take into account the 15 years mentioned by António Costa in January of this year), the average growth rate is in the 0.22 percentage pointshave to make the country have 12.7 times more in four years (between 2016 and 2019) than in the 15 preceding 2016, Costa’s first full term in government.
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