00:03Hello and welcome to The Cube, Euronews' fact-checking show.
00:07Which EU economy is performing the best?
00:10That's the question some are asking after Portugal's Prime Minister,
00:14Luiz Montenegro, said it was his country that was leading the charge.
00:18Montenegro made the comments while speaking to the Assembly of the Republic,
00:22Portugal's Parliament, while MPs were debating a motion of no confidence
00:27in the government put forward by the far-right Chega Party.
00:30The Prime Minister told MPs who ultimately rejected the motion
00:34that Portugal had the best economic performance
00:37and the best rate of employment growth in Europe.
00:40But is this true?
00:42To find out, we can take a look at the most recent Eurostat figures,
00:45which say that the EU's GDP was up by 0.7% in the second quarter of 2026,
00:51compared to the previous quarter.
00:53Ireland was the main driver of this, with far and away the highest jump in GDP at plus 10.2%.
00:59Slovenia and Lithuania came in second and third place at 1.8% and 1.7% growth, respectively.
01:07Portugal came in joint seventh place with Cyprus at 0.8%.
01:12So it's fair to say it's among the best of the 27 member states,
01:16but it's not the best, according to Eurostat data.
01:19When it comes to employment, the same Eurostat data set shows that employment had gone up
01:24by 0.1% in both the Eurozone and the EU in the second quarter of 2026.
01:30And in this case, Montenegro would be correct.
01:33When broken down by member state, Portugal comes in top at 1% employment growth
01:38in the second quarter of 2026.
01:40It's followed by the Czech Republic and Malta in joint second place at 0.9% growth.
01:46Several countries saw a decrease in employment, though, notably Finland and Greece.
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01:53Legenda Adriana Zanotto
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