2010.07.0709:24:00UTC+00Portugal New Orders Drop Further During March-May

New orders received by Portugal's industrial firms declined further during the three-month period ending May, the Statistics Portugal said Wednesday.

During the period, new orders fell 3.2% year-on-year compared to 2.9% during the three-month ending April. The statistical office said that the decline reflected a particular behavior observed in the domestic market. New orders in domestic market dropped 8% during the three-month period, steeper than the 3.8% in the previous period.

New export orders, however, recorded 1.4% growth annually after falling 2.1% during the three-month ending April. New orders to capital goods industry fell 8% year-on-year and had the biggest impact on the overall index.

Official figures have shown that the Portuguese economy expanded 1.8% year-on-year in the first quarter, rebounding from a 1% contraction in the previous quarter. This was the first positive GDP figure since the third quarter of 2008. The European Union has asked the Portugal government to detail its budget-cutting measures, formulated to achieve the deficit target of 1.5% of the GDP by next year.

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