IMF slashes Portugal's growth forecast

Xinhua

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered Portugal's growth forecast on Tuesday, estimating the country will grow 1 percent during 2014, according to local media reports.

The IMF had estimated in April that the Portuguese economy would grow by 1.2 percent.

Exports have driven a turnaround for Portugal in recent times, which outstripped other eurozone members in the fourth quarter last year with a year-on-year growth of 1.6 percent.

However, according to the IMF's quarterly report on the world economy released on Tuesday, Portugal is the only bailed-out country to have its growth prospects marked down by the IMF, facing risks due to an overall downturn in the eurozone economy.

Raising fears that Europe might be on the verge of another eurozone crisis, the report reveals that the growth forecast for the world economy has been revised downward to 3.3 percent for this year, 0.4 percentage points lower than in IMF's April 2014 World Economic Outlook.

The global growth projection for 2015 has been lowered to 3.8 percent.

According to the report, Spain's 2014 growth forecast was raised to 1.3 percent from 0.9 percent forecast in April. Ireland' s growth forecast was raised to 3.6 percent up from 1.7 percent.

Portugal was bailed out in 2011 by the European Commission, the IMF and the European Central bank and had to cut spending and raise taxes to meet its targets. It officially ended its program in May this year.

In April, the Portuguese government had forecast the economy to grow 1.2 percent in 2014, but downgraded its estimation in August to 1 percent. Both the IMF and the government kept its projection unchanged for next year, expecting the economy to grow 1.5 percent in 2015.