(Adds comment, details)
LISBON, April 28 (Reuters) - Portugal's economic growth
beat expectations as it accelerated sharply to 1.6% in the first
quarter from 0.3% in the prior three months, stoked by net
exports, while the pace of expansion dropped from a year ago,
official data showed on Friday.
The National Statistics Institute (INE) said in its flash
estimate gross domestic product expanded 2.5% from a year
earlier after registering 3.2% annual growth in the fourth
quarter as high inflation and rising interest rates weighed on
private consumption and investment.
The government expects growth to slow down to 1.8% this year
from 6.7% in 2022, which was the strongest expansion in 35
years.
"Quarterly growth was higher than expected and exclusively
due to net exports because of lower energy goods prices that
Portugal imported and increasing exports," said Filipe Garcia,
head of Informacao de Mercados Financeiros consultants.
"That makes the Portuguese economy more susceptible, for
better or for worse, to the developments in the international
economy," he said, adding that the government's full-year
projection appeared within reach.
Researchers from the Catholic University of Lisbon
expected the economy to have grown 0.5% quarter-on-quarter,
while the ISEG school of economics and management had predicted
an expansion of up to 1%.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves, editing by Andrei Khalip)
Messaging: sergio.goncalves.reuters.com@reuters.net))
