Growth formula: economy of Portugal after the “Carnation Revolution”

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the Portuguese economy in the last quarter of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Assessing several key indicators of economic development within a historical perspective, the author highlights the most important factors that set the dynamics of national socio-economic growth. For more than four decades, since the “Carnation Revolution” (April 25, 1974), the Portuguese Republic has undergone profound changes in the economy and the socio-political sphere. In the country, there are new, as well as modernized traditional industries, a modern structure of production and consumption; GDP has increased six times, exports of goods and services have grown dramatically. In general, Portugal organically blended in the world economic system, took its rightful place in the global division of labor. One should take into account the effects of the global crisis of 2008-2009, when the Portuguese economy found itself in the epicenter of the “perfect storm” (pairing internal and external negative factors) and was pushed back in practically all key macroeconomic indicators. Despite such a system failure, in the second half of the 2010s, Portugal managed to cope with the peak of the crisis, overcame the general effects of the recession and began to show some of the highest rates of economic growth among the states of the euro zone. However, preservation of the positive economic dynamics is currently threatened by external challenges that require timely and effective response. Such challenges of global nature include the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic impact of which appeared to be a real shock for Portugal, as well as for many other countries in the world.