The vice president of the Government considered, today, that the performance of the Azorean economy in the last 11 years, characterized by an annual medium growth five times superior to that of the Country, allows to put in perspective the continuation of the approximation of the regional profits for the national and Community averages.
Sérgio Ávila was speaking, in Ponta Delgada, in a press conference destined to analyse a publication of the National Statistics Institute (INE) on the evolution of the Portuguese and European economy which reveals a growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Azores, in 2006, of 3,3 percent - (1,2 percentage points above the registered one in the previous year) and superior to the checked one in the Country and in the European Union (1,4 and 3,1 percent, respectively).
Besides referring the importance of this indicator, he underlined that, in 2006, the regional "per capita" GDP reached 90 percent of national average, raising 11 percentage points in 11 years.
The vice president of the Government emphasized the fact of the growth of the product to have been accompanied by increases of the employment and of the regional productivity, which rose for three percentage points above the national average.
“We prove with these indicators that it is possible to adjust, in a balanced way, economical growth with the balance of the regional public finances, promoting the employment and the territorial cohesion of the Region”, he thought, indicating that, only in 2006, 2.217 jobs were created in the Azores.
He indicated that the "per capita" GDP of the Azores reached, in 2006, 13,2 thousand euros, doubling in the last 12 years, while referring that the numbers now publicised allow proving the convergence of the Region with the average of the Country and of the Community.
For Sérgio Ávila, “the recent evolution of the regional economy has been allowing, with sustainability, to create a bigger ambition of convergence with the European and national levels of profit, production and productivity, increasing the trust in the future of the Azores”.