Summary
Globally, the indications on the international background were less favourable. On the domestic side, the economic climate indicator became worse in July and August, although staying close to the maximum of the five previous years, presented in June. The economic activity indicator, available until July, continued the upward trend started in January, mainly reflecting a stronger domestic demand. Effectively, the quantitative consumption indicator continued to accelerate in July due to a higher growth of the consumption of durable and non-durable goods. Investment might have recovered as well, with the GFCF indicator improving in the last six months and reaching the best value since the end of 1998 in July. The information from the short-term statistics revealed favourable evolutions, between June and July, in services and construction, while industry continued to deteriorate. External trade data, with preliminary results up to July, showed decelerations of both imports (1.4 p.p.) and exports (1.8 p.p.), though exports maintained a higher growth rate than imports. The available information on the labour market, presented mixed indications. On one hand, in July, data from the short-term statistics points to an evolution of employment slightly less unfavourable and the job vacancies along the month increased more intensely accordingly to the information from the employment centres. On the other hand, in July there was a less intense reduction of the unemployment registrations along the month. Inflation was 2.1% in August, 0.3 p.p. more than in July, reaching the minimum value since June 2005. Report based on information available up to September 17, 2007.