LISBON: On leaving an EU Competitiveness cabinet meeting, Manuel Caldeira Cabral, said the figures the Portuguese National Statistics Institute (INE) released today show that Portuguese exports in January went up 9.6%, which was more than in the last three quarters meaning they are accelerating and the government expects this trend to continue.
The acceleration was particularly significant in the automobile sector, which saw exports to the EU and the rest of the world. There was also great increases in the agro-food sector, which increased 15,6%, and the machinery sector which saw exports rise more than 10% compared with the same month last year.
The INE said today that exports rose 9.6% bit imports steamed ahead with an increase of 12.4% compared with January 2017.