“The growth in our exports in 2014 would have been 5 percent were it not for the negative performance specifically in terms of refined fuel product exports,” the minister said at a press conference following a meeting of the Council of Industry chaired by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho.
With a government forecast of 3.7 percent for 2014 export growth, the minister was not crowing about the result, but did point out how Portuguese exports had put on a €20 billion surge over the last five years to total in the region of €70 billion in 2014.
Pires de Lima stressed how all sectors had put in strong performances but that the 30 percent drop in refined oil products had slowed the overall impact of the export performance. However the government did maintain its prediction of an almost 5 percent rise in exports this year.
Among the other forecasts the economy minister raised was the expected €3 billion improvement in Portugal’s balance of trade resulting from the fall in the price of oil with “each 20 percent fall in the price of oil, according to the econometric studies done by the ministries, resulting in additional economic growth of between 0.3 percent and 0.5 percent.”