PORTUGAL and MOROCCO: a successful partnership

Morocco - Trade Goods and Services
Morocco represents an important market for the Portuguese international trade in goods and services, holding the 14th position in the clients ranking in 2016, with a market share of 1.0% in exports while as a supplier, its share does not exceed 0.3%.

Morocco’s share in the Portuguese International Trade in Goods and Services

Source: Banco de Portugal

​The trade balance of goods and services between Portugal and Morocco is traditionally in favour of Portugal, having reached a balance of EUR 538.5 million in 2016 (an increase of 12.9% against the previous year).  It should be pointed out that the average annual growth in exports and imports between 2012 and 2016 was 14.9% and 1.4%, respectively.
It is relevant to mention that in trade with Morocco exports consist mainly of goods, while in imports the imbalance is not so great.  
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Portugal Trade Balance of Goods and Services with Morocco

Source: Banco de Portugal Notes: (a) Arithmetic average of the annual growth rates between 2012 and 2016; (b) annual rate of change between 2015 and 2016. Due to different methods of calculation, the value for “Goods and services” does not correspond to the sum (“Goods” (INE) + “Services” (Banco de Portugal)). The “Goods” component is based on data from INE, adjusted to fob values.

​Portugal – Internacional Trade
According to data from Banco de Portugal, the annual average growth rate of exports and imports of goods and services in the last five years were 4.2 and 2.9%, respectively.
In the first half of 2017, exports of goods and services increased 12.6% compared with the same period a year earlier and imports grew by 14.2% having reached a coverage rate of 101.8%. The balance of trade in goods and services has been positive in the last five years, reversing the previous negative trend.

Portuguese international trade - Trade of Goods and Services (a)

Source: (a) Banco de Portugal (Trade of Goods and Services); Notes: (c) Arithmetic average of the annual growth rate between 2012 and 2016; (d) annual rate of change between 2016 and 2017 (2016 - provisional results; 2017 - preliminary results)

 
EU remains the main destination of goods exports (74.5% of the total value in the 1st half of 2017, with an increase of 8.7% compared with the same period a year earlier), followed by North America (5.8%), Asia (4.9%), the Portuguese-speaking African countries (4.3%), Africa (except the Portuguese-speaking countries) (3.6%), Central and South America (2.7%) and the extra-Community Europe (2.6%).
Most of the imported goods came from the European Union -  75,9% of the total amount in the first half of 2017, followed by Asia (9.1%), South and Central America (3.3%), North America (1.9%), Africa (except the Portuguese-speaking countries) (1.9%), extra-Community Europe (1.6%) and Portuguese-speaking African countries (1%).

Source: AICEP Portugal Global (Marrocos - Ficha de Mercado; Portugal - Ficha País)