The Portuguese economy minister revealed in Brussels this week that the increase in Portuguese exports, which he described as “accelerating greatly”, also showed the country was going through a “good period” in terms of competitiveness.

On leaving an EU Competitiveness cabinet meeting, Manuel Caldeira Cabral, said the figures the Portuguese National Statistics Institute (INE) released this week show that Portuguese exports in January went up 9.6 percent, which was more than in the last three quarters meaning they are accelerating and the government expects this trend to continue.
The acceleration was particularly significant in the automobile sector, which saw exports to the EU and the rest of the world rise. There were also strong increases in the agro-food sector, which increased 15.6 percent, and the machinery sector which saw exports rise more than 10 percent compared with the same month last year.
The INE said this week that exports rose 9.6 percent bit imports steamed ahead with an increase of 12.4 percent compared with January 2017.

Source: theportugalnews.com