Imports grew faster than exports last year, aggravating the trade deficit in 966.3 million euros compared to 2013, according to figures from the National Statistics Institute (INE).
According to INE, exports of goods increased by 2% in 2014 over the previous year (4.5% in 2013), totaling 48,200 million euros, while imports had an increase of 3.3% (0.9% in 2013 ), reaching 58,806 million euros.

The trade balance was negative at 10,606 million euros, which means an increase of 966.3 million euros in deficit with 2013 (945.5 million euros without fuel), after three years of declines.

In terms of traded goods, fuels and lubricants were the only exported category that decreased (-19.1%), reflecting the shutdown for maintenance of refineries in March and April 2014 and the evolution of the price of crude oil (‘Brent’ ), which saw the annual average price down 9.1% last year.

Excluding this group, exports grew 4.3% (2.1% in 2013) and imports increased 6.1% (2.1% in 2013).

The extra-European Union trade (EU) was the main responsible for the decrease of sales abroad, with a slight decrease of 0.1%, while exports to EU countries increased by 2.8%.

Noteworthy are the consumer goods, whose exports increased 9.3% compared to 2013, while industrial supplies, which represent the main export category (33.6% of the total) increased only 1.7%.

The countries that contributed most to the increase in exports in 2014 were the United Kingdom, Spain and China, which became the 10th largest foreign customer of Portugal.

The increase in Portuguese exports to Spain (1.6%) was, however, lower than the increase of imports from this country (5.2%).

The increase in purchases of goods intra-EU partners (7.3%) was the largest contributor to the growth of such transactions, as imports from non-EU countries decreased by 6.7%

The transport equipment was the category that most contributed to the growth of imports in 2014, an increase of 20.9%, while purchases of fuels and lubricants had the greatest reduction in value (8.1%).

Germany, Spain and France were the countries that contributed most to the development of imports in 2014, having had an increase of 12.4% for German products, especially in the category vehicles and other transport equipment.

The largest decreases in value have been seen in imports of Angola (-39%), Cameroon (-79.5%) and Russia (-28.9%), with Angola down from the 6th to 7th place as regards the supply of goods to Portugal.

[Source]