LISBON: Portugal’s global trade deficit fell nine percent in the three months ended in May as imports declined more than exports, the National Statistics Institute said on Monday. The trade deficit fell to 2.724 billion euros. The deficit figure provided by the INE is for goods only.
Exports outside of the European Union slumped 15.3 percent and imports from non-EU countries dropped 14.7 percent. Traditional Portuguese export markets outside Europe, such as Angola and Brazil, have seen sharp economic slowdowns recently. But exports to European Union countries, Portugal’s main market, rose by 2.5 percent while imports from those countries were flat. Helped by growing exports and domestic consumption, Portugal’s economic growth accelerated to 1.5 percent last year from 0.9 percent in 2014, which was its first year of expansion after a long recession and debt crisis.
