Summary
Statistics Portugal released the first estimates for the National Accounts for the fourth quarter and for 2005 as a whole. It also disclosed the final and detailed results for 2001 and 2002. In the fourth quarter of 2005 the year-on-year growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose to 0.7% in real terms, vis-à-vis 0.4% in the previous period. In 2005 as a whole GDP grew in real terms by 0.3%, after a change of 1.1% in 2004. Domestic demand had a positive contribution to GDP growth, albeit less marked than of the previous year. In turn, the contribution of net external demand to GDP growth was less unfavourable than in 2004. Net borrowing of the Portuguese economy, as a percentage of GDP, went up from 5.8% in 2004 to 7.9% in 2005. Portuguese GDP went up to €129,308 million and €135,434 million in 2001 and 2002 respectively, which corresponds to a slight upward revision from €129,020 million and €134,937 million estimated in August, based on the backward-calculated data for the 1995-2003 period. Also, nominal growth rates of 5.8% and 4.7% in 2001 and 2002 respectively differ only by 0.1 percentage point (p.p.) from the previous results (5.9% and 4.6%).