He also suggested that the country might soon be in a position to pay off more of its outstanding debts to the International Monetary Fund.

"Portugal is accelerating its rate of growth and in the third quarter of last year had the fastest rate of the whole European Union," he said. As for the fourth quarter, he went on, the data available gives grounds to believe that this "has not only been consolidated, but has even accelerated a little ... the third-quarter data.

"We are seeing growth balanced between domestic and foreign demand, and also between consumption and investment," he said, arguing that "companies are investing" and "the employment data are very clear" in a positive direction.

Costa cited provisional unemployment figures released on Monday by the National Statistics Institute, which showed the jobless rate at 10.2% at the end of 2016, down two percentage points over the year.

"In net terms 100,000 jobs were created," he said.

Meanwhile, he said, the public sector budget deficit is sure to be no more than 2.3% of gross domestic product, "the lowest deficit of the last 42 years" - that is, in democratic Portugal.

"This deficit reduction has been done in a context that has made it possible to restore families' income and reduce the tax burden," the prime minister said. "During this year we shall continue with a very demanding objective: reducing the deficit to 1.6%" of GDP.

He also suggested that Portugal might soon pay off more of its debt to the International Monetary Fund, contracted under a euro-zone bailout, thanks to the "positive development" of the banking sector, which has been able to pay back state aid.

Costa was speaking at a ceremony to inaugurate the new headquarters of Banco Santander Totta in Lisbon.