Portugal gets mentioned in positive 'Wall Street Journal' article
'The tourist boom has brought billions in fresh investment in construction and transport. Portugal’s 10 airports had 44 million passengers last year, up almost 50% from 2011. In August, TAP, the country’s airline, set a record for passengers. '
EXTRACT "LISBON—Just four years ago, Portugal was under the thumb of international creditors. Its banks were teetering, unemployment was near 18% and tens of thousands of Portuguese were leaving the country.
Now, the country is one of Europe’s hottest stars, with tech startups mushrooming, foreigners taking up residence and investment pouring in. In mid-September, Standard & Poor’s even raised Portugal to investment grade from junk—a crowning achievement for a country that came within a hair’s breadth of default in 2011 and had to accept a bailout worth €78 billion ($92 billion).
“Lisbon is happening,” said Martin Henk, an Estonian entrepreneur who opened an office in the city, lured by a pool of multilingual, highly skilled talent and affordable living costs. “Everywhere you turn, people are talking about it.” Mr. Henk has hired 35 people since starting operations in March and plans to almost triple that by late 2018.
Portugal’s economy expanded 3% in the second quarter compared with the same period in 2016, the fastest pace since 2000. Consumer confidence is near all-time highs and unemployment is now 8.8%, below the EU average."
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Photo credit: Terreiro do Paço, Lisbon PHOTO: LARA JACINTO FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL