According to data compiled for Lusa, Portugal exported goods and services worth 940.1 million euros in the first eight months of this year, which shows a 32.2 percent drop from 1,386.6 million euros euros sold from January to August 2019.
Conversely, Portugal purchased goods and services from Angola for 391.7 million euros, which compares with the 782.1 million spent in the same period in 2019, which represents a 49.9 percent decline, essentially explained by the fall in the price of oil, which has worsened in recent months.
AICEP data show that the evolution of purchases and sales from Portugal to Angola does not follow a regular pattern, nor does it show a trend, registering only the constant that the trade balance has always been favorable to Portugal, but with significant variations .
Looking at the last five years, for example, in 2015 the balance of trade was favorable to Portugal at 2,325.3 million euros, having declined in 2016 to 1,639.6 million, and recovered again in 2017 to 2,526.5 million, but since then it has been going down.
In 2018, the difference between exports and imports narrowed to 1,493.4 million, and last year it further narrowed to less than 900 million euros.
Lusa questioned AICEP about the explanation for this evolution, but had no answer.
Regarding the importance of Angola as a customer of Portugal, there is evidence of a drop in the country in the ranking of the largest customers in Portugal, having gone from sixth in 2015 to ninth last year.
Conversely, that is, of sales from Angola to Portugal, the outlook has further deteriorated: Angola went from ninth supplier in Portugal in 2015 to 17th in last year, with the percentage of sales to Portugal falling from 1 , 9 percent to 0.8 percent over the past five years.
In 2016, the number of Portuguese companies operating in Angola saw a sharp reduction, from 7465 to 5514, having then risen to more than 5850 in 2017 and since then it has been decreasing slightly, with 5151 Portuguese businesses in the last year. parents.
Machinery and Apparatus, Agricultural and Chemical Products and Foodstuffs represent more than 60 percent of Portugal's total exports to Angola, while Portugal overwhelmingly imports only oil, which is worth 98.5 percent of sales from Angola to Portugal.
