Portugal: Q1 exports to China up 3.18 pct

Portugal exported goods worth $545.8 million (€486 million) to China in the first three months of the year, a 3.18% increase compared to the first quarter of 2018.

According to official figures published on the Forum Macau portal, based on Chinese customs data, trade between Lisbon and Beijing was $1.57 billion (€1.39 billion) in the first quarter of the year, a 17.24% rise compared to the same period in 2018.

Portugal imported goods worth $1.03 billion from China and ran a trade deficit of around $485 million.

The imports of Chinese goods climbed 26.36% compared to the same period last year.

Beijing bought gods worth $17.71 billion from Brazil, its largest Portuguese-speaking trading partner in the first three months of the year, while Brazil bought $7.29 billion of Chinese goods, a 2.35% drop.

Angola came second in the ranking of Portuguese speaking countries with $6.4 billion in bilateral trade, but it was highly out of balance as Luanda sold just over $6 billion to China and only bought $378 million of Chinese products.