EMPLOYMENT IN THE NORTH REGION GROWING ABOVE THE NATIONAL AVERAGE

 

The numbers released by the Northern Regional Development and Coordination Commission (CCDR-N) show that this same growth, registered between July and September, was mainly driven by the construction, manufacturing industries and employment in the public administration, since the unemployment rate of the region remained at 7.2%. 

The quarterly indicators related to private consumption and to investment also show a positive evolution of the quarter under review, in particular in two indicators which reversed the negative trend that has dominated the first half of the year. 

These are: the value of imports of machinery and other capital goods (except transport equipment) and employment in the construction sector, with a gain of 16.5%. 

Summer is also marked by regional growth in the number of overnight stays (2.9%), which is contrary to the negative year-on-year variation at the national level (-1.7%).

Total income and housing indicators maintained high levels of growth (7.8% and 8.1%, respectively), however in a slowdown.

The report Norte Conjuntura, which shows quarterly economic trends in the region in the short term, says that the behavior of the goods exportation by companies of the North had a null year-on-year nominal variation (0.7%, compared with 5.8% in the previous quarter) and with negative variations in August and September. 

The slowdown, underlines the document, "was mainly motivated by the evolution of the exportation of traditional goods, such as wood clothing, furniture and footwear, as well as machinery and electric materials and appliances”.

Data also show that Portuguese GDP grew by 2.1% in volume, decelerating from the previous quarter (2.4%), although surpassing the growth observed in the average of the European Union and the euro area (1.9% and 1.7%, respectively).

The National Statistics Institute (INE) has upwards revised the value of growth in the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the North in 2016, the previous estimative was of 1.9%, but the definitive value now disclosed is 2.7%.

Therefore, according to the report, "2016 was, after all, a year of acceleration and not a slowdown one in terms of economic growth of the North region, since growth had been 2.2% in 2015”. 

By 2017, the provisory results indicate a growth of 2.5% in the North and 2.8% in the country.