The country’s National Statistics Institute also confirmed on Friday that the Portuguese economy had accelerated in the second quarter by 2.3% compared to the same period in 2017 and 0.5% month-on-month.

“Growth of GDP was slightly higher than Europe’s and the eurozone’s (2.2% year-on-year), enabling Portugal to continue its tendency of convergence with the European Union,” the finance ministry said in a statement.

The country’s economy is growing in a context of a greater balance of external accounts and better management of public accounts, the finance ministry added.