The National Statistics Institute (INE) of Portugal announced on Tuesday that the country’s exports and imports reached around 60 billion euros (US $ 68 billion) and 80 billion euros (US $ 91 billion), respectively, in 2019, the highest values ever recorded.
These numbers mean a 3.5% increase in foreign sales and a 6.4% growth in purchases from abroad in annual terms. Within the European Union (EU), foreign trade registered an increase of 4.4% in exports and 7.1% in imports. With countries outside the European bloc, foreign purchases grew by only 0.8% and imports increased by only 2.1%.
Last year, the trade deficit in goods was close to 20.4 billion euros (US $ 23.1 billion), an increase of 2.8 billion euros (US $ 3.18 billion) over the previous year.
“This unfavorable evolution was mainly due to transactions with countries within the EU,” said INE in an official report.
In 2019, Portugal’s main external customers continued to be Spain, France and Germany, which accounted for 49.8% of Portugal’s total exports, while the United States continued to be the main destination for Portuguese products outside the EU, with 5% .
Spain, Germany and France were also Portugal’s largest trading partners in terms of imports, representing 53.5% of total imports, while China continued to be the main supplier outside the EU with a 3.7% share.
