Bank of Portugal maintains forecast of 2 pct GDP growth this year

Source: Xinhua | 2019-12-18

The Bank of Portugal (BoP) maintained its forecast of 2 percent GDP growth for Portugal this year, according to December Economic Bulletin released on Tuesday.

The BoP also upgraded its forecast for the GDP growth in 2020 from 1.6 percent to 1.7 percent.

"For 2020, the projection for GDP growth was revised slightly upward from the June Bulletin, which is due to higher growth in private and public consumption," noted the December Economic Bulletin.

Despite the improvement, the BoP's estimate for 2020 is below that of the government, which anticipates a 1.9 percent GDP expansion, according to the proposed state budget for 2020 delivered on Monday to the Parliament.

BoP's forecasts do not take into account the measures included in the state budget for 2020.