Until January 2020, Portugal had marked 25 quarters of uninterrupted growth. Unemployment had fallen to the lowest level since 2004 and the budget was in surplus for the first time in 45 years. Then Portugal identified its first two cases of Covid-19 on March 2, 2020.
The economic impact of the pandemic that followed abruptly reversed that upward trend, leading to a 7.6% contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020 — the worst slump since 1936 — with heavy job losses and widespread company shutdowns, especially many small family firms that form the bedrock of an economy that depends heavily on tourism.
