According to that document, the forecasts mean that "the Portuguese economy continues to expand in 2019, for the sixth consecutive year, but at a pace slower than that observed in the recent past."

The economic slowdown is set to result, according to Bank of Portugal, from the "lower contribution of exports, against a backdrop of weaker growth in world trade and external demand directed to the Portuguese economy." However, it projects that "the contribution of internal demand remains unchanged."

In June, in that month’s economic bulletin, the central bank forecast 1.7% growth for this year, as it had in March.

However, it stressed in its latest bulletin, the new projections "are not directly comparable with those of June, due to the recent review of the national accounts and balance of payments series" – since the incorporation of new information has important implications for growth and macroeconomic aggregates.

On 23 September Portugal’s National Statistics Institute (INE) upgraded by 0.3 of a percentage point its estimate of growth in 2018, to 2.4% from the previous 2.1%, and said that this was done in the context of regular reviews of national accounts, which introduce developments in methodology and incorporate results from sources with information that is often released on a less-than-annual basis.

Also according to the bulletin released on Thursday, in the first half of this year growth slowed slightly, to a year-on-year 2%.