Exports of goods from Portuguese-speaking countries to China in 2023 totalled USD 147.5 billion, a new all-time high, according to official figures from the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries.
The figure is the highest since Forum Macao – in which all members are of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) including Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste participate – began presenting this type of data from China’s national Customs Service in 2013.
Exports from Portuguese-language countries to China last year were up 6.2% on 2022, mainly due to Brazil, whose exports to China – mostly constituting crude oil – rose 11.9% to USD122.4 billion, also a new record.
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By contrast, Angola’s exports to China fell 18.7% to USD 18.9 billion, and Portugal’s fell 4.1% to USD 2.91 billion.
Most other Portuguese-language countries also exported less to China, including Equatorial Guinea (down 9.4%), Timor-Leste (down 48.7%), São Tomé (down 53.8%) and Guinea-Bissau (down 40.2%).
Apart from Brazil, only Mozambique and Cabo Verde managed to sell more to China last year than in 2022.
Mozambique’s exports rose 33.9% to USD 1.79 billion – also a new record high – while Cabo Verde’s exports to the Asian giant more than tripled, albeit to a still modest USD 72,000.
As for imports, Portuguese-speaking countries last year took goods worth USD73.4 billion from China, or 3.5% less than in 2022.
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Here, too, Brazil was China’s largest trading partner, with imports totalling USD 59.1 billion, followed by Portugal, which took goods worth USD 5.79 billion from China.
In total, trade between Portuguese-speaking countries and China totalled USD 220.9 billion in 2023, or 2.8% more than the previous year.
China had a trade deficit of US$74.1 billion with Portuguese-speaking countries last year, taken as a whole – also a new historical record.
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Forum Macao was created in Macao – a former Portuguese territory – in October 2003, four years after Portugal handed back the territory administration to China. It was set up by China’s central government and co-organised by the government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).
