Mozambique’s 2023 exports to China rose 33.9% to record $1.79 billion

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Mozambique’s 2023 exports to China rose 33.9% to record $1.79 billion

2:21 CAT | 28 Jan 2024

File photo: Macauhub

Exports of goods from Portuguese-language countries to China last year totalled $147.5 billion (€136.1 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, as it is better known – in which all members of the Community of Portuguese-Language Countries (CPLP) including Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe, 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 the largest of these countries, Brazil, whose exports to China – mostly constituting crude oil – rose 11.9% to $122.4 billion (€112.9 billion), also a new record.

By contrast, Angola’s exports to China fell 18.7% to $18.9 billion (€17.4 billion), and Portugal’s fell 4.1% to $2.91 billion (€2.69 billion).

Most other Portuguese-language countries also exported less to China, including Equatorial Guinea (down 9.4%), Timor-Leste (down 48.7%), Sao Tome (down 53.8%) and Guinea-Bissau (down 40.2%).

Mozambique hits new record high

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 $1.79 billion (€1.65 billion) – also a new record high – while Cabo Verde’s exports to the Asian giant more than tripled, albeit to a still modest $72,000 (€66,000).

As for imports, Portuguese-language countries last year took goods worth $73.4 billion (€67.7 billion) from China, or 3.5% less than in 2022.

Here, too, Brazil was China’s largest trading partner, with imports totalling $59.1 billion (€54.5 billion), followed by Portugal, which took goods worth $5.79 billion (€5.34 billion) from China.

In total, trade between Portuguese-language countries and China totalled $220.9 billion (€203.7 billion) in 2023, or 2.8% more than the previous year.

China had a trade deficit of $74.1 billion (€68.3 billion) with Portuguese-language countries last year, taken as a whole – also a new historical record.

Forum Macao was created in Macau – a former Portuguese colony – in October 2003, four years after Portugal handed back the territory to China. It was set up by China’s central government and co-organised by the government of the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR).

Source: Lusa