Costa says Portugal is showing strong economic growth and is leading the European Union.

The Prime Minister said this Thursday that Portugal is showing steady growth, the highest in the European Union, after emerging from the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and is currently facing a situation of war in Ukraine.

This position was expressed by António Costa in Fundão, Castelo Branco, at the closing ceremony of the partnership agreement between the Portuguese government and the European Commission for the implementation of the Portugal 2030 program, which will allow Portugal to access 23 billion euros by 2029.

Following speeches by Presidency Minister Mariana Vieira da Silva, who coordinates the planning and use of EU funds in the government, and European Commissioner for Cohesion Policy and Reform Elisa Ferreira, the chief executive referred to figures from Brussels. , which revised Portugal’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth up 0.7 percentage points this year to 6.5%, making it the country with the biggest growth.

“It means that we can get out of a process that has been heavily driven by the Covid-19 pandemic and face this new reality of the war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine, while maintaining our productive capacity and attracting investment, our ability to create jobs. and improve our economy,” he said.

According to António Costa, the country “has good reason to be confident” in the face of the challenges of the future, defending the existence of corresponding progress in terms of citizen skills and indicators related to renewable energy. In this context, he also advocated for the existence of “opportunities” in terms of digital transformation, mainly due to Portugal’s geographic location.

“We have political stability, we are the fourth most peaceful and secure country in the world, and we are in a strong financial position. Although the rules of the Stability Pact remain suspended, last year Portugal complied with the rules – and this year we are doing it with more comfort. Despite the crisis of the covid-19 pandemic, already last year we reduced the weight of our public debt in GDP,” he added.