Summary
Volume GDP remained unchanged in 2008 after growing 1.9% in the previous year. This behaviour was mainly due to the intense negative contribution of net external demand for GDP change rate, and to a lesser extent to the deceleration of domestic demand. In nominal terms, GDP reached about 166 billion euros, more 1.8% than in the previous year.
In the 4th quarter 2008, Gross Domestic Product decreased 1.8% in real terms compared to the same period of the previous year, below the registered in the precedent quarter (0.4%). This reduction was associated to the evolution of domestic demand, whose contribution to GDP change rate was -1.3 p.p. in the 4th quarter (1.6 p.p. in the previous quarter), mainly determined by Investment. On the contrary, the contribution of net external demand to GDP growth was less negative in the 4th quarter 2008, comparing to the previous (-0.5 p.p. and  1.2 p.p., respectively). Compared to the 3rd quarter 2008, the rate of change on Portuguese GDP was -1.6%.