Cabo Verde’s balance of trade deficit increased by 4.4% on year in 2019 to 72.230 billion escudos (US$722 million), compared with 69.195 billion escudos in 2018, the archipelago’s National Statistics Institute said.

This deficit was due to exports dropping by 14.0% to 6.071 billion escudos and imports rising by 2.7% to 78.301 billion escudos.

As a result, the rate of coverage of imports by exports fell by 1.5 percentage points from 9.3% in 2018 to 7.8% in 2019.

In 2019, Europe remained the main buyer of Cabo Verde’s products, buying 96.4% of total exports, which focused on fish products (60.7% of the total), fish, crustaceans and mollusks (16.2%) and clothing (10.6%).

Within the European Union, Spain remained the main importer of Cape Verdean goods, with 77.5% of total exports, followed by Portugal with 18.0%.

Europe was also the main supplier of goods to Cabo Verde, with 79.6% of the total, followed by Asia/Oceania with 10.1%, the Rest of the World with 6.2%, and Africa with 2.0%.

In 2019 Portugal led the main suppliers of the archipelago, with 42% of the total, followed by the Netherlands with 12.5% and Spain with 10.5%.

The main products imported by Cabo Verde in 2019 were fuels, with 11.8%, reactors and boilers with 7.5%, cars with 6.4% and machinery and engines with 5.9%. (macauhub)