Portugal's economy experienced a slightly accelerated growth rate in the fourth quarter on account of robust domestic demand, according to preliminary data from Statistics Portugal released on Tuesday.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) escalated by 2.2 percent year-on-year in the quarter of December, a slight rise from the previous quarter's growth of 1.9 percent.
Statistics Portugal indicated that the annual GDP growth rate was significantly driven by domestic demand in the fourth quarter. Although there was an uptick in private consumption, investment was slightly sluggish.
Furthermore, the data unveiled a positive contribution from net external demand during the final quarter, reflecting faster growth in exports compared to imports.
On a quarterly perspective, the country's economy witnessed a bounce-back of 0.8 percent in the December quarter, reversing from the 0.2 percent dip in the preceding quarter.
Throughout 2023, Portugal's overall GDP grew by 2.3 percent in volume; however, this was comparably weaker than the substantial 6.8 percent increase recorded in 2022, which was the strongest growth rate since 1987.
