LISBON: Portuguese exports rose by 0.7 percent against a 0.3 percent increase in imports in the three-month period through to January of this year, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported this week. The statistical bulletin stated the Portuguese trade deficit thus closed this period on €2.478 billion, down €28.9 million year-on-year with the coverage rate up 0.3 percent to stand at 82.5 percent.
In annualised monthly terms, January 2016 saw exports slide 1.5 percent due essentially to a fall in trade with non-EU countries as trade within the single market continued to expand.
In the same monthly terms, imports fell back 1 percent due to a dip in non-EU imports arising from the continuing impact of low crude oil prices. Stripping out the effect of fuels and lubricants, January saw exports down 0.4 percent whilst imports rose an annualised 5.6 percent.
However, the service sector continued to experience difficult conditions, with turnover down 2.2 percent year-on-year in January even while an improvement on the 2.9 percent decrease registered in December, the statistics bulletin detailed. In particular, the wholesale and vehicle repair sectors continued to drag services down, recording January shrinkage of 3.1 percent against the December figure of 3.4 percent.
In month-on-month terms, nevertheless, service sector turnover put on an advance of 2.4 percent in January coming back from a fall of 0.3 percent in December 2015. Additionally, service sector employment continued well into the black with January’s 1.2 percent rise managing to build on the 1 percent increase at the end of 2015.
Indeed, the indices for employment, gross remuneration and hours worked, adjusted for the effects of the calendar, recorded annualised rises of 1.2 percent, 1 percent and 0.5 percent respectively.
