LISBON: Portugal’s first quarter GDP growth has been revised up to a 0.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter rate of expansion, up from an initial estimate of 0.1 per cent. The year-on-year growth rate has been lifted to 0.9 per cent, up from an earlier reading of 0.8 per cent.
Portugal’s economy has now expanded for eight consecutive quarters, its longest run of growth since the nineties. However, last week Moody’s warned that Portugal’s substantial debt load remains “a challenge”. Among the countries Moody’s rates, Portugal has one of the highest debt burdens at 129 per cent of GDP. The rating agency warned this is a “key constraint” to the country’s economic growth and sovereign rating. Moody’s also highlighted the country’s weak banking sector, warning that “the government might yet again have to provide capital support to a state-owned bank this year.”
