The Serviço Regional de Estatística dos Açores (SREA) released its latest figures on Wednesday, showing continued—though moderating—economic growth in the Azores in November 2025. The data come from the Indicador de Atividade Económica dos Açores (IAE-Açores) and the Indicador do Consumo Privado dos Açores (ICP-Açores), both of which posted positive year-over-year changes, albeit at a slower pace than in the previous month.

According to the SREA, the IAE-Açores recorded a year-over-year increase of 1.1% in November, measured using a three-month moving average. This represents a slight slowdown of 0.1 percentage points compared to October’s revised growth rate of 1.2%. A breakdown by component shows that the strongest positive contributions came from landed fish, cement sales, and dairy products.

By contrast, the most notable year-over-year declines were observed in slaughtered livestock, overnight stays in traditional hotels, rural tourism accommodations, and local lodging, as well as in ATM transactions, pointing to weaker performance in segments tied to tourism and household cash usage.

Private consumption continued to grow but also showed signs of easing. The ICP-Açores rose 2.6% year over year in November, based on a seven-month moving average. This marks a 0.4 percentage point decline from the revised October figure of 3.0%. The SREA notes that most of the series underlying the index remained in positive territory, with the strongest increase recorded in household electricity consumption. The sharpest decline, meanwhile, was seen in sales of new light passenger vehicles.

The SREA cautioned that both indicators should be read strictly as short-term monitoring tools. The IAE-Açores, the agency emphasized, is not intended to measure intra-annual changes in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but rather to capture the overall state of the economy, with particular attention to periods of acceleration, deceleration, and potential turning points. Likewise, the ICP-Açores should not be interpreted as the official year-over-year growth rate of private consumption, but instead as a behavioral indicator, constructed from a set of explanatory series and subject to revision as seasonal adjustments and baseline data are updated.

In Diário dos Açores-Paulo Viveiros, director

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