A study coordinated by former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, socialist Sérgio Sousa Pinto and Nuno Botelho, president of the Porto Commerce Association, concludes that Portugal is "blocked" in a "low-growth equilibrium". The analysis, developed with scientific support from the Faculty of Economics and Management of the University of Porto, identifies several blockages that reinforce each other and explain the country's poor economic performance.
The study, entitled "Blockages versus Reforms: a vision for Portugal", aims to answer why Portugal has grown little, lost relative position in the European Union and cannot converge with more developed economies. Since 1999, the Portuguese economy has grown on average about 1.1% per year, one of the worst performances in the EU. The central problem identified is productivity: even in periods of higher recent growth, this resulted mainly from increased employment and not from productivity gains.
The work diagnoses blockages in areas such as human capital, management quality, investment, innovation, business scale, productive specialization, savings and financing, as well as in the functioning of the State and institutions. The study also identifies factors such as centralism, bureaucracy, taxation, slowness of the Justice system, housing difficulties and regulatory barriers as constraints on resource mobility and investment.
The study is being developed in two stages: a diagnosis of the main blockages and the identification of structural reforms with measures, scheduling, costs, financing and impacts. It will be publicly presented at the end of the year and submitted to the President of the Republic and the Government. The coordinators have been promoting a consultation process with specialists from different sectors of Portuguese society, seeking contributions to enrich the diagnosis and prepare a proposal useful to public debate.
