Exports of goods are having the worst year since 2009 – Mad Money

The national goods exports are moving to the weakest pace in seven years. According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), the value of exports fell 1.8% in the first half; sales to Europe are slowing down, but still grew by 3.5%; the amount billed outside the European Union collapsed 16%.

According to the history of the INE, is necessary to go back to 2009, the year of the great global economic crisis, to find a worse performance of the export sector. In the first half of this year, there was a drop of 25%. A year ago, the first half of 2015 foreign sales were up 4.4%. Since then, the decline has been consolidating, now putting in check the growth targets of the economy for this year (1.8%, says the government, which has a real rise of 4.3% in total exports).

the global economic slowdown, led by emerging and oil-dependent countries, not only affects exports. Devaluation of crude oil, for example, influences the value of Portuguese imports. These fell 1.8%, with purchases made outside the EU to go down 9%.

slightly larger trade deficit

However, as the total exports to Portugal fell more than imports , the trade deficit of the country (only goods) turned out to be even more serious, show official figures. Went from 4.9897 billion in the first half of 2015 to 5016 million in the same period this year, contributing to deteriorating external accounts of the country.

In addition to the goods, services Portugal exports (about one third of the total), such as tourism, hotel and airfare. Complete data for the first half will still be published by the Bank of Portugal, but it is known that until May the scenery was something heartbreaking. The annual nominal growth of exports of services increased by only 0.6% in the first five months of the year (year change too).

But back to the goods. According to INE, “the 1st half of 2016, exports decreased 1.8% compared to the 1st half of 2015 mainly due to lower exports to Angola (-44.5%) and China (-36.4%). Excluding transactions for these two export partners increased by 0.8%. “

In imports” clearly evident in June 2016, the decrease of Angola (55.6%) over the same month of 2015 and, on the other hand, the increase in imports from Germany (11.2%) and the US (62.2%). “

So” imports decreased by 1, 4% in the 1st half of 2016 over the same period of 2015. this evolution was mainly contributed to reducing imports from Angola (-49.6%). Imports excluding transactions to this country decreased by 0.3%, “the INE.

The fall of oil

In exports, products affected by the global trade crisis were the “minerals”, which include oil and fuels. Here the break reached an impressive 32% in the first half. In large national industries, honorable mentions go to the textile industry (over 5%), hides and leathers (7%), for plant production (115) and metals and precious and semiprecious stones (15%) .

in imports, unsurprisingly, Portugal bought less 37% of mineral products and least 8% of base metal. Footwear and transport equipment (cars) continue to have the best performances:. Increases of 17% and 18%, respectively