Trade accelerates in March for Q1 exports up 13% YoY, imports 9%

Portugal’s exports in the first quarter were up 9.7% on the previous quarter and up 13.2% on the same period a year earlier, while imports were up 9.2% on the quarter and up 9.1% on the year, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said in a statement released on Wednesday.

In its flash estimates released on 28 April, the INE had announced that first-quarter exports were up 13.3% on the year and imports 8.7%, “registering a slowdown in the growth of goods transactions for the third consecutive quarter.”

On Wednesday, the INE reports that in March alone, year-on-year growth in exports and imports of goods in nominal terms accelerated to 18.7% and 9.3% respectively, from 6.9% and 7.1% in February; it stresses that March 2023 contained one more working day than the corresponding month of 2022 and four more working days than February 2023.

In terms of categories, INE highlights the increases in exports and imports of industrial supplies (19.0% and 12.5% respectively) and a decrease in imports of fuels and lubricants (down 12.7%), in the latter case reflecting a decrease in prices.

Excluding fuels and lubricants, there were increases of 20.8% in exports and 13.4% in imports in March compared to the same month in 2022, compared to 9.9% and 14.3%, respectively, in February 2023.

The unit value indices (prices) registered variations of 4.8% in exports and -2.2% in imports, against a positive 7.1% and 4.4%, respectively in February 2023, the INE said, noting that in March 2022 there had been increases of 16.9% and 21.1%.

The INE also said that, excluding oil products, year-on-year variations of 6.4% in exports and 0.4% in imports were recorded, versus 7.4% and 4.6% in February 2023 and 14.3% and 14.5% in March 2022.

The trade deficit in March narrowed by €388 million compared to March 2022, to €2.088 billion.

Excluding fuels and lubricants, the deficit shrank by €250 million to €1.267 billion.