The Prime Minister announced this Sunday that the suspension of the Autoeuropa plant will have a negative impact on products and national exports, highlighting both the successive economic turmoil in the world and the growing interdependence.
Antonio Costa made this point at the end of a lunch with national businessmen investing in Chile, after he was asked about the prospects of stagnation and even recession in some European Union (EU) member states.
“We are witnessing successive shocks, and the world has weathered them much better than in the past. In European economies, some have only now begun to enter a situation of stagnation or even recession. Portugal, fortunately, is not yet in any such situations – and let’s hope that this does not happen,” he said.
Immediately after this, the Prime Minister noted that economies are very interconnected, and then cited as an example the fact that the floods in Slovenia deprived Autoeuropa of important parts for its activities.
“You will have to stop working for two months. Two months of disruption at Autoeuropa will have a huge impact on the growth of our product. [interno bruto, PIB] and in our exports,” he emphasized.
A situation that, according to António Costa, “is clearly the result of existing interdependence and completely external factors.”
“This has nothing to do with the situation in Portugal or the Palmela plant, but with the floods in Slovenia. The opposite could have happened,” he said.
The executive leader noted that Portugal has many factories producing components for the automotive industry.
“I believe that today there is not a single car in Europe that does not have at least one part made in Portugal. These Portuguese factories could paralyze factories in other countries as a result of flooding in Portugal,” he added.
The Prime Minister said it was a “very challenging” time on the economic front.
“But the most important thing is that economic policymakers are leveling the playing field so that we can all help each other to best emerge from this series of major shocks,” he added.