Weak growth affecting two-thirds of Portugal’s exports

A cooling of economic activity from Portugal’s main trading partners Spain, France, Germany, the UK and the US is having a negative knock-on effect for Portuguese exporters affecting 65% of companies.

This is according to the IMF and accepted by the Portuguese government with only exports to Poland and Morocco bucking the trend as markets.

And two-thirds of the countries to which Portugal most exports will suffer a slowdown in their economies next year thanks to the high level of uncertainty because of the unpredictability of US commercial policy, geopolitical tensions all of which will effect overseas demand for Portuguese goods.

However, the IMF has revised Portugal’s growth forecast upwards for the coming year. Instead of the 1.7% forecast in April, the institution led by Kristalina Georgieva now estimates that the Portuguese economy will grow 1.9% this year and 2.1% in 2026.

This is compared to the rest of the Euro Zone which is only expected to grow by 1.2%.

While Portugal is on track for 2.1% in 2026, Spain is expected to suffer a slowdown from 2.9% to 2% in 2026, although Germany should grow 0.9% compared to 0.2% this year and France, despite being drowned in successive political and financial crises, should see its GDP grow from 0.7% now to 0,9% in 2026 – but Europe two largest economies are still trawling the bottom with growth of less than 1%.