Portugal Economy

Portugal has a market economy; the most important industries including oil refining, petro-chemistry, production of cement, the automobile and ship industries, electronics, machinery, paper industry, textile, leather, ceramics, beverages and food industry.

Perhaps surprisingly, Portugal is the world's largest producer of cork; it is also the world's eighth-largest producer of wine; tourism is another important factor in Portugal’s economy.

Portugal’s membership of the European Union since 1986 has helped the country to establish stable economic growth and development. This has come largely as a result of strong trade ties and an inflow of funds that were allocated by the European Union in order to improve the Portugal's infrastructure.

Portugal joined the economic and monetarian union and since January 1999 the Euro has been the official currency.

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