LISBON (Reuters) -Portugal’s economy bounced back to expand 0.6% in the second quarter from the previous three-month period when it shrank a revised 0.4%, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said on Wednesday, citing strong private consumption and exports growth.
Gross domestic product also grew 1.9% year-on-year, in an acceleration from a 1.7% growth in January-March, it said.
The Bank of Portugal slashed its full-year growth forecast in June to 1.6% from 2.3% citing global trade tensions, although the country is still on course to outgrow most of the top euro zone economies. Last year, the economy grew 1.9%. The government has so far stuck to its estimate of 2.1% growth this year.
The INE said the contribution of net external demand to the quarter-on-quarter change in GDP was less negative than in the previous quarter, with exports of goods and services registering growth after dropping in the previous quarter.
“Similarly, the positive contribution of domestic demand increased, with private consumption growing,” it added.
By contrast, the German economy contracted by 0.1% in the second quarter, data showed on Wednesday, as demand from the United States slowed following months of strong purchases in anticipation of U.S. tariffs. French GDP grew 0.3%, beating forecasts, while Italy’s GDP unexpectedly contracted 0.1%.
Portugal’s neighbour Spain, where growth accelerated to 0.7% last quarter, remains one of the main outliers in a sluggish euro zone setting.
(Reporting by Andrei Khalip; Editing by David Latona)
