Portugal´s foreign trade continued to plummet in May, with China being the exception among the country´s major trading partners, according to official statistics.
Among Portugal´s main business partners, only China had an increase in imports in May, of 5.1% ,according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).
The increase is related to the purchase of consumer goods abroad, “essentially the import of personal protective material (mostly masks)”, according to the same source.
This follows an increase of 4% in April, when Portugal was still under lockdown. May was the first month after the state of emergency due to the Covid-19.
In March, April and May Portugal imported goods from China worth 716 million euros, 27 million more than in the same period last year.
Overall, exports and imports in Portugal decreased by 39% and 40.2%, respectively, in May, values similar to those that had been registered in April.
Portugal´s acquisitions from the European Union countries fell 32.3%, namely -55.3% from France, -36.5% from Germany, -31.9% from the United Kingdom and -26.8% from Spain.
Imports from the USA fell by 52.2% and those from Russia by 75.2%.
