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ANNUAL REPORT 2011
Economic Context
Global situation
Despite the return of turbulence to
international financial markets, in 2011 global
GDP grew by nearly 4% (4.6% in 2010), with
the major developed economies and those of
emerging markets performing quite positively,
except for the downturn in Japan, strongly
punished in human and material terms by the
March earthquake and the Fukushima plant
disaster.
The Euro-zone crisis was at the centre of
attention and generated a widespread loss of
confidence among economic players, caused
by the lack of political resolve to take steps to
tackle the sovereign debt crisis and prevent it
from spreading.
Reduced credit and the measures applied to
achieve budget consolidation targets strongly
contributed to the gradual cooling of the economy
and consequent rise in unemployment, a trend
which should continue in the next few years.
In 2012 the main international bodies anticipate
a panorama of global GDP growth slowing to
about 3%. The major emerging economies
should continue to grow at a sustained pace,
albeit more moderate than in the recent past,
partly offset by weaker performance of the
developed economies.
Situation in Portugal
As indicated by the Bank of Portugal, the year
was marked by the Portuguese state’s request
for financial assistance from the European
Union and the International Monetary Fund.
This led to formalization of an Economic and
Financial Assistance Programme (EFAP) in which
the Portuguese government pledged to adopt
structural measures to adjust macroeconomic
imbalances accumulated over the last several
years which have led to the growing need for
external financing.
The request was made in April during a period
marked by major tension in international financial
markets, during which the public sector and the
financial system lost access to credit in normal
conditions, putting external debt solvency at risk.
The adjustment programme signed with
international creditors had an inevitable
contraction effect aggravated by the sliding
public accounts deficit in the first half of 2011
(8.3% of GDP), which meant additional steps had
to be taken to achieve the 5.9% goal set for the
whole year.
The latest figures published by the INE (National
Statistics Institute) indicate a 1.5% retreat of the
economy in 2011, slightly less than the 1.6%
anticipated by the Bank of Portugal.