Portugal Economy Expands At Slower Pace; Inflation Eases Slightly

Portugal’s economy expanded at a slower rate in the first quarter, flash data from Statistics Portugal showed on Tuesday.

Separate official data revealed that consumer price inflation eased marginally in April after rising in the previous month.

Gross domestic product, or GDP, advanced 1.4 percent year-on-year in the March quarter, slower than the previous quarter’s increase of 2.1 percent.

On a quarterly basis, GDP advanced at a steady pace of 0.7 percent in the first quarter.

The positive contribution of domestic demand to the annual growth rate of GDP decreased in the first quarter, with a slowdown in investment and private consumption, the agency said.

Net external demand showed a flat contribution in the March quarter, with a deceleration in the volume of exports of goods and services and a slight acceleration of imports.

Consumer price inflation eased to 2.2 percent in April from 2.3 percent in the preceding month, flash data showed.

Prices for unprocessed food products remained flat in April. Meanwhile, the annual price growth of energy products accelerated to 7.91 percent from 4.78 percent.

The core inflation, which excludes energy and unprocessed food products, also moderated to 2.0 percent in April from 2.5 percent a month ago.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices moved up 0.5 percent in April, slower than the 2.0 percent growth in the previous month.

EU-harmonised inflation slowed to 2.3 percent from 2.6 percent in March.

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