According to the quarterly report on foreign trade statistics from Cape Verde’s National Statistics Institute (INE), this performance was aggravated by the increase in imports, which grew 31.2% from April to June this year to 24,393 million escudos (229.5 million euros).
Exports fell 1.4% in the second quarter, year-on-year, to PTE 1,275 million (12 million euros), while re-exports grew 76.4%, to PTE 8,361 million (78.6 million euros).
With this performance, Cape Verde’s trade balance was again negative in the second quarter, at 23,117 million escudos (217.5 million euros), against the deficit of 17,305 million escudos (162.7 million euros) in the same period of 2021 (+33.6%).
Taking into account that Cape Verde’s trade balance had already been negative from January to March, in 18,992 million escudos (178.5 million euros), the result for the first semester is negative in 42,109 million escudos (395.7 million euros), an increase of 28.7% compared to the same period in 2021, which was then 32,730 million escudos (307.5 million euros).
According to INE, in the second quarter of 2022, Europe remained “Cape Verde’s main customer,” absorbing 94.2% of total Cape Verdean exports and with Spain leading the list of the archipelago’s main customers, with a share of 49.9% of the total.
The most exported products by Cape Verde in the second quarter were preparations and canned fish (70.9% of total sales), clothing (12.7%), and footwear (6.3%).
The European continent continues to be Cape Verde’s leading supplier, with 62.3% of the total weight.
Cape Verde’s trade balance was in deficit for all of 2021, at 642.8 million euros, increasing 10.5% and nullifying the recovery in the previous year, according to data released earlier by INE.
In 2021, exports increased 1.3% compared to 2020, to PTE 5,169 million (46.5 million euros), and imports grew 9.9%, to PTE 76,563 million (689.3 million euros).
Re-exports increased 26.6% in relation to 2020, to PTE 18,948 million (EUR 170.6 million).