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2018 saw record number of new companies - 40% in tourism

hotelvrsaThe 2018 numbers for company start-ups show that 45,191 new enterprises were created in Portugal last year. The figures from Informa D&B show a 10% increase over 2017.

Of the significant number of new companies, 40% are in sectors related to tourism, over 18,000 companies.

"2018 reinforces the signs of entrepreneurial initiative that we saw in 2017 and illustrates the strong dynamics of tourism in Portugal, since the new companies involved in tourism activities represent a very significant part of this growth," said Teresa Cardoso de Menezes, director general of Informa D&B.

Lisbon continues to be the district with the largest number of companies created: 15,800 in 2018, an increase of 13.7% over 2017. Then comes Porto with 8,142 companies and Setúbal with 3,377 companies.

However, business closures rose 19% year-on-year, displaying a, "steady growth since April 2018" across all districts and sectors, according to Informa D&B.

The consequence is that the ratio between company births and deaths declined from 2.7 in 2017 to 2.5 in 2018.
This means that 2.5 businesses were created for each one that died, in 2018.

The sectors with the highest number of new companies registered were real estate, services and telecommunications.