”We hope that economic activity will reach pre-pandemic values throughout the year of 2022. By the end of 2022, these values will have been reached, according to our projection,” Mário Centeno told reporters at the presentation of the December BdP Economic Bulletin.

The BdP maintained its forecasts for the Portuguese economy in 2020, anticipating an 8.1 percent drop in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to the Economic Bulletin, and for 2021 and 2022 it expects economic growth of 3. 9 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively.

In terms of scenarios of political measures at European level, Mário Centeno said that, without wanting to “talk too much about fiscal policy, all the signs point to the implementation of budgetary treaties in Europe which will take into account the achievement levels of production and GDP prior to the pandemic”.

Mário Centeno concluded by stating that “optimism regarding this coordination [with national policies] and the design of policies that have to be combined between countries and at a European level to respond to the economic crisis must be maintained, and we have to do our part”