According to data from the Portuguese National Statistics Institute (INE) compiled for Lusa, imports from Angola went from 1 billion euros in 2019 to 389 million last year, which reveals a 63 percent drop .
Together with the decline in Portuguese exports to Angola, which fell from 1.2 billion to 871 million euros between 2019 and 2020, a decrease of almost 30 percent, the trade balance almost tripled, increasing from 163 million to 482 million euros.
In a year of pandemic and a strong slowdown in economic activity and international demand for oil, on which Angola depends to balance public accounts, trade between Portugal and the Portuguese-speaking African countries reveals a mixed scenario, with an increase in exports only to Cabo Verde (6 percent) and São Tomé and Príncipe (3 percent), although with much lower values than those registered with Angola, the main Portuguese trading partner in Africa.
Conversely, imports of African products to Portugal experienced a sharp increase in Equatorial Guinea (94 percent), Guinea-Bissau (136 percent) and São Tomé and Príncipe (356 percent).
Regarding the balance of trade, this continues to be favorable to Portugal in the relationship with all African Portuguese-speaking countries except Equatorial Guinea, with whom Portugal recorded, in 2020, a negative balance of 336 million euros, which represents a worsening of more than 100 percent compared to 2019 figures.
