LISBON: Portugal's gross domestic product shrank 1.8 percent in the final quarter of 2012, doubling the pace of its fall from the preceding quarter as exports fell, adding to the impact of austerity under an international bailout, data showed on Monday.
The National Statistics Institute said the economy contracted 3.8 percent in the quarter when compared with the same period a year earlier as the recession deepened.
In the third quarter the economy shrank 3.5 percent from a year earlier.
The second reading of fourth quarter GDP data from INE confirmed its first assessment made last month and provided new data that showed exports fell 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter from the preceding three-month period after three straight quarters of rises, and declined 0.5 percent from a year earlier.
Internal demand fell 1.6 percent from the previous quarter and 4.7 percent from a year earlier after the centre-right government introduced sweeping austerity measures, including cutting civil servant wages and hiking taxes under the bailout terms.
The economy contracted 3.2 percent last year, slightly worse than the government's 3 percent forecast.
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