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Transparency and simple data showing the evolution and impact of decisions are “essential”, both for reasons of accountability and because they can provide a reliable basis for life and future decisions. In its defence, Ricardo Valente, a member of the Porto City Council, explained Economic Bulletin Information about the city and metropolitan area of Porto makes visible its evolution in recent years and reflects the country’s figures in areas ranging from talent and population to companies and investments. “Administrative transparency and the impact on decisions of citizens, investors and institutions are essential for the daily lives of citizens”, stressed the Mayor, noting the reasons for preparing and making public this report.
The Porto Economic Bulletin was launched last year so that everyone can follow the indicators of the main Invicta themes transparently. It depicts the city and the metropolitan area in nine key themes: Demographics, Talent, Health, Macroeconomics, Transactions, Companies, Tourism and Infrastructure, Real Estate and Housing and Sustainable Development. (See the full report here).
“Transparent governance is essential to building trust between citizens and local authorities. Providing clear and accessible economic data can strengthen Accountabilitythat is, the responsibility of government officials. The impact on the decisions of citizens, investors and city institutions is another central point. For citizens, access to reliable economic information can influence everything from consumption decisions to household financial planning. For investors, economic information is essential to assess the city’s business environment, identifying investment opportunities and related risks. In the case of public and private institutions, economic data is essential for strategic and operational planning”, Ricardo Valente pointed out in the introduction of the document.
But what about Porto? The communique shows a city with a thriving economy, but like any other it is also affected by a population increasingly supported by immigration. In the last decade, the number of inhabitants in Porto has increased by 6.1%, and almost 6,000 of the 248,769 people currently living in the city have arrived in the last year due to immigration – births still outnumber deaths, but immigration has more than tripled in a decade, and the percentage of foreign residents in Porto is 210.8%, twice the average for the country. Currently, more than 23,000 foreigners live in Invicta, of whom almost half are Brazilians (10,569), with Italians (1,365) and Indians (865) dominating the list of the three largest foreign communities.
Even so, the ethnic groups that saw the largest increases between 2021 and 2022 came from Portuguese-speaking African countries and Asia, with Mozambicans increasing by 53.1% to 297, Angolans increasing by 32.5% to 702, and Indians increasing by 42.5%.
The metropolitan area’s economy has been growing since 2018, with wealth in the region increasing by more than 12% between 2021 and 2022 and now approaching €40 billion, representing 16.2% of the national GDP. Porto’s companies have invested a total of €4.3 billion, increasing their production capacity by 10% in a year, a quarter of which are FDI projects (foreign direct investment), creating nearly 6,000 jobs.
However, the largest share of jobs is in the commercial and service sectors (86% in the city of Porto, above the national average of 72% and 70% in the metropolitan area), especially in tourism. The number of guests grew by 22.5% last year, totaling 2.8 million, while the number of accommodation establishments grew by 14% to a current level of 443, generating revenues of 435 million dollars, an increase of 31.1%. If the entire Porto metropolitan area is included, the value rises to 640 million. The Economic Bulletin also confirmed that in 2023, the total value of bank card payment transactions in Portugal reached 2.8 billion euros, of which foreign bank card transactions accounted for 650 million euros.
In terms of family needs, the number of recipients of family benefits is lower than the national average (5.8% and 8%, respectively), but the number of RSI beneficiaries is much higher: 6.1% and 2.5%, respectively, with more than 10,000 registered unemployed people in Porto, which recently reported that it has four times more doctors and nurses per inhabitant than the national average.
Finally, housing, which does not differ much from the perceived reality. The real estate market has been declining, with 5718 homes sold in 2023 (-18% in one year), totaling 1.8 billion in 2023. The price per square meter for sale has been rising for five years and is currently 2866 euros, close to 50% higher than the national average, and the rent is 11.7 euros/square meter, higher than the national average of 7.2 euros. The report also shows that Porto has a total of 133,400 family homes, of which 76.6% are occupied by families, of which 8.2% are used as second homes and 15.2% are vacant.
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