Britain's departure from the European Union has seen many firms look to Portugal do to business
ADVERTISEMENTPortugal is on the up because Brexit is giving it a boost. Economy minister Manuel Caldeira Cabral says although the UK's departure is not good for Europe, more shared services are looking at Lisbon and beyond to place their activity, and that's been positive for the jobs market.
MANUEL CALDEIRA CABRAL, PORTUGAL'S ECONOMY MINISTER, IN DAVOS:
"We see this prospect happening in Portugal, we just had 2.8% GDP growth in 2017 and the forecast for 2018 is improving," said Caldeira Cabral. "We also are finishing 2017 with 11.5% of increasing exports, which means that our firms are competitive but also that the global markets are growing." Sentiments shared by other experts at Davos. Harvard University economist Kenneth Rogoff told euronews he believes the outlook for this year is very strong.
"I'm an economist, I can tell you about the risk from China to Donald Trump, to rising interest rates, but I think that the base line is that the global growth is going to be very good. I didn't say the base line for the stock market because is very high but global growth should be pretty solid in 2018 around some significant risks," explained Rogoff.
The Bank of Portugal estimates the economy grew 2.8 per cent in 2017 and forecasts expansion of 2.3 per cent this year. However, youth unemployment remains high. In September it went up from 25.1 per cent to 25.6 per cent in October, the EU's third highest rate after Spain and Italy.
