Portuguese economy enjoys export trade surplus

The Portuguese economy has registered an external trade surplus of €1.4Bn for 2021, which corresponds to 0.7% of GDP, an increase of €1.3Bn on 2020.

According to the Bank of Portugal, current account and capital balances stood at €1.4Bn, corresponding to €0.67% of GDP, which compares to €49.15 million in 2020 (0.02% of GDP).
Despite both exports and imports increasing last year on 2020 “the deficit in the balance of goods increased (€-15.3Bn), since imports grew at a slightly greater pace than exports”.
Compared to 2019, exports as well as imports of goods also enjoyed higher numbers. In terms of the balance of services, the surplus increased on 2020 to €9.4Bn “because the increment in the surplus in travel and tourism more than compensated in the balance of transport services (the costs associated goods transportation have risen considerably)”.
According to the BdP, the export and import numbers for services are, however, below those registered before the pandemic, with exports corresponding to 76% and imports at 99% on 2019 values.
In 2021, the BdP stresses “tourists resident in France, the United Kingdom, and Spain continue to be responsible for the most Portuguese tourism revenues”.
In the balance of payment statistics released today, the central bank also points to the receipts of more European funds as “decisive for the increase in the surplus in the secondary income balance and towards a reduction in the deficit of the primary income balance”, respectively to €5.7Bn and €2.5Bn respectively.
The Bank of Portugal highlights the growth of exports and imports in travel and tourism which increased 68.9% and 60.1% respectively on December 2020, but remained far from the figures seen in December 2019.
In terms of goods, exports grew more than imports (23.5% and 28.8% respectively) while for services exports and imports grew by 40.7% and 46.0% respectively.