Growing Trade With China

7 July 2011

London — Trade between Mozambique and China rose to 349 million US dollars during the first five months of this year according to figures released by the Chinese Customs Bureau.

This represents an increase of 49 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Imports from China reached 271 million dollars, up by 47 per cent, while exports to China rose by 57 per cent to 78 million dollars.

According to the Macau based agency Macauhub, trade between China and Portuguese speaking countries rose to 43.09 billion dollars, an increase of 32 per cent. China imported 28.95 billion dollars of goods and exports totalled 14.14 billion dollars.

Brazil is by far the largest Portuguese-speaking trading partner, with exports to China of 18.2 billion dollars and imports of 11.73 billion dollars.

Angola is China’s second largest Lusophone trading partner, mainly due to the Asian giant’s need to import oil. Exports to China totalled 10.29 billion dollars during the first five months of this year, with imports reaching 950 million dollars.

Portugal imported 1.14 billion dollars of goods, which is a 41 per cent increase on the same period in 2010. However, the country only exported 381 million dollars of goods to China, an increase of 27 per cent.

Globally China has a huge trade surplus, totalling 13 billion dollars in the month of May. However, it has a trading deficit with the Portuguese speaking world because of its need to import oil from Angola, and oil, iron ore, and soya beans from Brazil.

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