Portugal: Deepening Structural Reform to Support Growth and Competitiveness
Having been hit hard by the global crisis, the Portuguese government has taken action
to put its economy back on track, and to correct external and budgetary imbalances.
Public finances have strengthened, and the current account deficit has closed on the
back of gains in competitiveness and improvements in export performance. Portugal
has also been able to reduce income inequality and relative poverty, a major accomplishment
during a severe crisis with record levels of unemployment. As Portugal successfully
exits the EU-IMF-ECB-supported programme and emerges from recession, it is more important
than ever to build on these achievements.
At the request of the Portuguese authorities, the OECD has carried out an assessment
of the impact of the reforms implemented to date on the economy’s longer-term growth
outlook. The analysis is based on OECD indicators of the restrictiveness of Product
Market Regulation (PMR) and the strictness of Employment Protection Legislation (EPL).
It updates the OECD report Portugal: Reforming the State to Promote Growth, published
in 2013.
According to the OECD’s Going for Growth exercise, Portugal is among the OECD countries
with the best recent track record of responsiveness to structural reform recommendations.
The reforms undertaken since 2009 to promote competition in product markets and enhance
the dynamism of the labour market are expected to raise productivity and potential
GDP by at least 3.5% by 2020.
Published on July 08, 2014Also available in: Portuguese
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