Economic growth was recorded in Portugal during the period 1990 – 2000. It has become progressively more service based economy. In the year 1986, Portugal was accepted in the European Union. It is a high income country and follows its own capitalist kind of economic structure. In 1998, Portugal qualified for the Economic and the Monetary Union of the European Union. Over the last 20 years, consecutive governments have taken steps in order to privatize many of the state controlled companies and worked more towards liberalizing the economy. It started circulating Euro along with other 11 European countries in January, 2002. The economic growth was more than the average for European Union during the 1990s, but recorded below the average during the period 2001-2008.
Portugal was able to keep its budget deficit below 3%, the criteria set by Eurozone’s Stability and Growth Pact, during the period 2002-04. However, its budget deficit shot up to 6.1% in 2005. It has been brought down to 2.2% in 2008 and is expected to be the same for the year 2009. 1.9% economic growth was recorded in 2007. However, it grew by only 0.8% in 2008 and is expected to grow by 0.6% in 2009.
$ 255.483 billion GDP recorded in the year 2008 makes Portugal the 37th country in the world. It falls below the world average but has increased by 14.34% over the previous year and is expected to grow more by 0.89% in 2009. GDP per capita of Portugal for the year 2008 was $ 24,031.24 per person making it the 33rd country in the world based on GDP per capita figures available for the world’s leading economies for the year 2008. The GDP per capita of Portugal is more than the world’s average. In 2007, it was $ 21,081.67. It registered the increase of 13.99% in 2008 and is expected to increase by 0.64% in the year 2009.
About half of the land in Portugal is used for agriculture. Adopting modern technologies in this sector have resulted in more outputs. The leading agriculture products are potatoes, grain, tomatoes, grapes, olives, goat, swine, cattle, poultry and dairy products.
Among the various types of industries, the leading are clothing, textiles, footwear, chemicals, paper, wool, wood and cork, base metals, glassware, ceramics and porcelain, dairy products, wine and foods, oil refinery, shipping, telecommunications, technology and tourism.
The top export items of Portugal include food products, agricultural products, plastics and rubber and related products, chemicals and chemical products, oil products, skin and leather and related products, wood and cork, paper and paper pulp, wood, textiles, clothing and clothing material, machinery and tools, footwear, minerals and mineral products, transport equipment and vehicles, and optical and related precision instruments.
The major export partners for Portugal are Spain, Germany, France, United Kingdom, United States of America, Angola and Italy.
The major items that Portugal imports include transport equipment, machinery, petroleum, textiles and clothing, chemicals and chemical products, and agricultural products. The major import partners for Portugal are Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom, America and Japan.