Portugal · state of the economy

State of the economy

A faster, consolidated read-out of where the Portuguese economy is now — not a GDP forecast.

Updated June 11, 2026

The Portuguese economy is steady (health score 51/100). Activity is running at about +1.8% year-on-year on the BdP coincident indicator, with the weekly pulse pointing down since that print. Our indicative mid-quarter estimate for Q2 2026 GDP is +0.3% quarter-on-quarter (80% band -0.1% to +1.1%), implying about +1.9% year-on-year. For 2026 as a whole, the median projection is +1.8% annual growth (P(>2%) ≈ 35%); the 5 official forecasts sit between the 46th and 65th percentiles of our distribution. Recession risk is low (P≈9%); in an adverse quarter (5% worst case) GDP growth could come in around -0.7%. The labour market looks stable, with the unemployment rate at 5.7%. Indicative read-out, not an official forecast — see each tile's caveats.

Generated by: fixed-rule template over the published tiles (no model, no new claim)

About this dashboard

A fast, consolidated read on where the Portuguese economy is now, built from official high-frequency data — a read of the present, not a forecast.

Data vintage: June 11, 2026Quarter coverage: M2 · 33%
Overall reading

Economic health

state of the economy
51SteadyContractionBoom
Steady

A fixed-rule blend of the activity, recession-risk and downside signals below.

Composed of
Activity
5465%
Downside risk
4635%
Recession cap
100

65% activity + 35% downside, capped by recession risk.

Coincident read-out

Activity pulse

preliminary

Where activity is running now — anchored on the latest BdP Coincident Activity print.

Level — BdP Coincident Activity
+1.8%YoY · April 1, 2026

BdP Coincident Activity (BPstat 12099329) · corr 0.81 with YoY GDP (ex-COVID)

corr 0.81 ex-COVID with YoY GDP (pseudo-real-time, 40 normal quarters 2014-2025; the monthly BdP 'Coincident Activity' print carries the level information, not the weekly pulse)

Weekly tilt since that print
Down-0.5ppover 42d

direction-only, adds no verified level information (partial corr +0.01); its value is timeliness between monthly BdP prints

Combined read
+1.3%freshness overlay — the anchor above is the best level estimate

Weekly index (demoted component)

cadence context only — not a level estimate
+1.6%Jul 24Jun 26
How does the year end up?

2026 annual outlook

annual outlook
+1.8%median annual GDP growth

Carryover from quarters published through 2026Q1, plus the 2026Q2 nowcast and an AR(1) extrapolation — assumes no new shock. Carryover floor: +1.2%.

Simulated distribution (p10–p90) and official forecasts% annual average growth
European Commission · +1.7% · Spring 2026 Economic Forecast (2026-05-21) · P46EC+1.7%Banco de Portugal · +1.8% · Boletim Económico — março 2026 (2026-03-25) · P52BdP+1.8%OECD · +1.8% · Economic Outlook No. 119 (Under Pressure) — June 2026 (2026-06-03) · P52OECD+1.8%IMF · +1.9% · World Economic Outlook — April 2026 (2026-04-14) · P59IMF+1.9%Governo (Ministério das Finanças) · +2.0% · Relatório de progresso do plano orçamental de médio prazo (abril 2026) (2026-04-30) · P65Gov+2.0%carryover +1.2%+0.9%p10+1.3%p25+1.8%p50+2.2%p75+2.5%p90

Official forecasts on our distribution

  • European Commission+1.7%May 21, 2026· P46
  • Banco de Portugal+1.8%March 25, 2026· P52
  • OECD+1.8%June 3, 2026· P52
  • IMF+1.9%April 14, 2026· P59
  • Governo (Ministério das Finanças)+2.0%April 30, 2026· P65

Hand-curated, sourced institutional forecasts (data/consensus_forecasts.csv; latest publication per institution). The percentile places each point forecast on OUR simulated distribution — proximity is context, not validation.

P(>0%)
100%
P(>1%)
88%
P(>2%)
35%
P(>3%)
2%

In-quarter seed: official_quarterly tile (point + calibrated band se) (quarterly_nowcast)

Attribution

What's moving it

preliminary

Biggest movers: Activity Indicators dragging down, Surveys pushing up.

pushing updragging down
Activity Indicators-0.04pp
top driver: Coincident Activity
Surveys+0.03pp
top driver: Economic Sentiment (ESI)
Prices+0.00pp
top driver: HICP Annual Rate
Google Trends-0.00pp
top driver: GT: turismo
Financial+0.00pp
top driver: VIX
Energy+0.00pp
top driver: Gas Consumption
Consumption+0.00pp
top driver: Coincident Consumption

pp of q/q GDP

What are the jobs data saying?

Labour market

labour market
5.7%unemployment rate · April 1, 2026Stable

A read-out of published labour data — no forecast: next-month unemployment is at its noise floor.

Unemployment rate · 3m change
+0.1pp
April 1, 2026
IEFP registered unemployed · 3m change
+5,727
persons · February 1, 2026
Employment expectations
-6.1
survey balance · May 1, 2026

Recession risk

recession risk

Current risk

this quarter · 2026Q2

8.6%0%100%

Where recession risk stands now — a calibrated read available before the GDP print.

100%2005Q12026Q2Shaded: past Portuguese recessions

Model probability by quarter

Track record

AUC
0.91
vs base rate
+0.43
vs persistence
-0.30
episodes
3

2-quarter outlook

outlook

looking ahead · 2026Q4

9.1%0%100%

Looking two quarters ahead — anticipates gradual downturns, not sudden shocks.

Sahm labour-market check

Not triggered

unemployment gap 0.13pp vs 0.73pp threshold

Growth-at-risk

Downside risk

indicative

Range of next-quarter GDP growth outcomes

-0.71%Adverse case (5th–10th pct)

The range of plausible outcomes for next quarter — read the downside, not the midpoint.

GARCH baselineUpside+1.68%Median +0.41%Downside-0.71%-1.05%+0.00%+1.97%
Adverse case (5th–10th pct)
-0.71% -0.40%
Median
+0.41%
Favourable case (90th–95th pct)
+1.30% +1.68%
Demoted · preliminary

Official q/q GDP nowcast

indicative
Point estimate+0.33%q/qEarly / unreliable

The hardest series to nowcast — only firm at quarter-end (M3).

Implied YoY+1.9%YoY80% band: +1.5%+2.6%
95% bandcalibratedasymmetric — wider above the point (the model has tended to under-predict growth)
-0.42%+1.14%
80% band: -0.07%+1.06%95% band: -0.42%+1.14%

Combination weights

  • AR(1)20%· +0.4%
  • Supply-side bridge29%· +0.4%
  • Factor DFM29%· +0.3%
  • ESI momentum23%· +0.2%

Inverse-MSE weights with a hard AR(1) floor (shrink_combo); the small numbers are each member's own q/q call.

Vintage M2 · 33% of the quarter's data in

INE first prints have revised UP by +0.15pp on average (sd 0.34pp, n=36 ex-COVID genuine first releases) relative to today's revised series; our backtest edge survives first-release scoring (M3 rel-RMSE 0.81 vs the production AR(1) — see output/track_record.json).

How good were the calls?

Track record

track record

Until 2026-06-04 these are backtested as-if calls on a leak-free publication-lag harness, scored against the GDP number as FIRST published — from then on every dot is a call we actually published.

Backtest era — as-if calls, scored against FIRST-published GDP

backtest (as-if calls, leak-free publication-lag harness)

Horizonn (ex-COVID)rel. RMSE vs AR(1) · first releasevs revised80% band hits
M1360.970.9275%
M2360.940.8972%
M3360.810.7469%

Below 1.00 = smaller errors than the AR(1) benchmark on the same information set; ex-COVID quarters only. Band hit-rates are indicative (bands were calibrated against the revised target).

  • M1/M2 rows are shrink_combo (the production in-quarter model); ar1 is the production AR(1) fitted on the SAME publication-lag information set.
  • hit80 compares |our_call - first_release| to the per-horizon 80% split-conformal half-width from src/evaluation/quarterly_band_calibration.json; those bands were calibrated on overlapping quarters (against the revised target), so the hit-rate is indicative, not an out-of-sample coverage claim.

Live era

4 days of live history as of 2026-06-11

  • June 4, 20262026Q2 · M1ensemble+0.40%no outturn yet
  • June 4, 20262026Q2 · M2supply_side_bridge+0.40%[-0.88%+1.68%]no outturn yet
  • June 5, 20262026Q2 · M2supply_side_bridge+0.40%[-0.88%+1.68%]no outturn yet
  • June 10, 20262026Q2 · M2supply_side_bridge+0.40%[-0.88%+1.68%]no outturn yet
  • June 11, 20262026Q2 · M2supply_side_bridge+0.41%[-0.87%+1.69%]no outturn yet

Sparse by construction — the live era only started on 2026-06-04. No live-covered quarter has an official outturn yet; live scoring begins when INE/Eurostat publish the first one.