Purchases from Angola rose 30% through September to €878M- INE

Portugal’s purchases from Angola rose almost 6.7% in September, helping the accumulated value of imports from January to September to rise almost 30% to €878.2 million, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

According to Lusa’s calculations based on import and export figures provided by INE, in September Portugal’s purchases from Angola soared by almost 6.7%, rising to €163.5.

Portugal’s exports to Angola also fell that month, from €112 million to €86.8 million, which influenced the trade balance, which went from €110 million in favour of Portugal to €76.7 million in favour of Angola, representing a drop of almost 170% in the trade balance.

In the total of the three quarters, between January and September, Portugal’s purchases from Angola increased from almost €680 million to €878.2 million, while exports fell from €1.1 billion to €903 million.

This evolution led to a 94.3% fall in the trade balance, from €438.8 million in the first nine months of 2018, to only €25 million from January to September of this year.

“The increase of 6.691% in September is due to the CN 2709 (crude oil or bituminous minerals), with a weight of 99.2%, compared to total imports this month,” INE told Lusa when asked about what explained this abnormal variation.

INE added that there is always great volatility in oil-producing countries, justified by the fact that importing companies resort to a basket of crude from different origins, acquiring those that are available at any time at more competitive prices so that monthly imports reflect this situation.