Portugal's economy grew 0.6% in the last three months of the year compared with the previous quarter, thanks to an increase in domestic demand and exports, the country's statistics agency said Tuesday.
The figure is slightly higher than the 0.5% the agency had previously estimated. The economy rose 1.7% in the fourth quarter from the same period in 2012, although it still fell 1.4% for the entire 2013.
Portugal hasn't recorded on-year quarterly growth since the fourth quarter of 2010. The turnaround surprised economists, who expected the euro-zone country to continue to be hard hit by the austerity measures the government imposed in exchange for a 78 billion euros ($108 billion) international bailout.
Signs of improvement, however, started showing late last year as the euro-zone crisis began to ease and companies pushed for sales in Portuguese-speaking Angola and Brazil and other growing markets outside Europe.The government expects gross domestic product to rise 1.2% this year.
The figure is slightly higher than the 0.5% the agency had previously estimated. The economy rose 1.7% in the fourth quarter from the same period in 2012, although it still fell 1.4% for the entire 2013.
Portugal hasn't recorded on-year quarterly growth since the fourth quarter of 2010. The turnaround surprised economists, who expected the euro-zone country to continue to be hard hit by the austerity measures the government imposed in exchange for a 78 billion euros ($108 billion) international bailout.
Signs of improvement, however, started showing late last year as the euro-zone crisis began to ease and companies pushed for sales in Portuguese-speaking Angola and Brazil and other growing markets outside Europe.The government expects gross domestic product to rise 1.2% this year.