Portugal’s rating by Standard & Poor’s has been upgraded, reflecting the optimistic outlook for the economy of the country.

The director of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Klaus Regling, said that the upgrade of Portugal's rating by S&P "is a sign of optimism," in addition to the economic growth, drop in unemployment and the yields on ten-year treasury bonds.

“The recent improvement in the evaluation of the sovereign debt of Portugal by rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) is another sign of optimism,” said Regling.

S&P upgraded Portugal’s rating from ‘BBB-‘ to ‘BBB’, two levels above the speculative investment degree with a stable outlook.

According to the Portuguese news agency Lusa, Regling stressed that “the ten-year bond interest in Portugal is now below 1.5%, which is a huge achievement,” considering “the peak of about 17% in 2012”.

He also said that “today, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Cyprus are success stories, experiencing high growth rates and a rapid decline in unemployment rates”.

Regling added that since 2011, the ESM and the European Financial Stability Facility disbursed €295 billion for Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Cyprus.

Thanks to the broad package of reforms, including the creation of rescue funds, the euro is now “much more solid,” confirmed Regling.

Meanwhile, economists estimate that Portugal’s public sector budget deficit for 2018 ended up at around 0.6% of gross domestic product, in line with the figure released in February by the country’s finance minister, Mário Centeno.

"The deficit of 2018, reported in the ambit of the first notification … should come in line with the government's most recent public statements, that is it should be between 0.4 and 0.6 per cent of GDP," João Borges de Assunção, a professor at Lisbon’s Catholic University, told Lusa, adding that this outcome "is positive given the slowdown in economic growth in 2018."