‘Invisible exports’ of services including tourism has seen strong growth in the first nine months of the year, far stronger than the growth in the exports of goods.
This performance is thanks mainly to the contribution from a booming tourism sector which has its base and spiritual home in the Algarve.
To September there was an increase in invisible exports of 6.5% over the same period last year. In real money this is a whopping €15,483 million, according to figures published today by the Bank of Portugal.
This positive balance between Portugal’s export and import of services helps compensate for the deficit in the balance of trade in physical goods in September.
The overall balance of trade shows a surplus of €111 million for the year. This is the first surplus since 1943 when Portugal had a booming business exporting Wolfram to the allies and the Germans.
In the early months of 2014 we will know the year end figures but it will be quite a feat to end 2013 with a positive balance of trade.
