OECD Economic Surveys: Portugal 2017

Portugal’s economy has gone through a gradual recovery from a deep recession.
A wide-ranging structural reform agenda has supported the recovery and the
ongoing reduction of imbalances built up in the past. Raising investment will
underpin the ongoing rebalancing of the economy and a stronger export sector.
Incentives for new capital investments could be strengthened by improvements
in judicial efficiency, administrative reform, product market regulation
reforms or lower labour costs. Removing non-performing loans from bank balance
sheets would enhance banks’ ability to provide new credit to firms. Addressing
bottlenecks in insolvency procedures and opening up new sources of financing
would also boost private sector investment. Overcoming a legacy of a low
skilled labour force is key for higher living standards. Despite remarkable
progress, the education system could do more to raise skill levels and reduce
the link between learning outcomes and socio-economic backgrounds. The high
share of early school drop-outs and frequent use grade repetition could be
reduced by shifting resources towards primary education and students at risk
and improving teacher training and exposure to best practices. Unifying the
current fragmented Vocational Education and Training (VET) system into one
dual VET system, and strengthening monitoring and evaluation could raise its
effectiveness to meet the labour market needs and ability to contribute to a
more skilled society. Efforts need to continue to raise the skills levels of
the low-qualified adult population.


SPECIAL FEATURES: RAISING INVESTMENT; RAISING SKILLS

*[XIXe]: Dix-neuvième