Unemployment hasn’t skyrocketed yet and recession projections for 2020 do not reach double digits, says the Portuguese Minister of Economy Siza Vieira. There’s been no date set yet for re-starting the economy, but Vieira said the process would have to happen gradually. The International Monetary Fund has projected Portugal’s GDP will fall by 8 percent in 2020. Minister Vieira said that while the government says it’s too early to know what the impact of the crisis will be on the economy, he expects a recovery to take place in 2021. For the moment, the government says that 82 percent of all companies continue to be active, but that 66,000 have made layoffs, which will lead to a significant increase in unemployment.
