Mozambique's overall volume of trade in goods with foreign countries fell by 16.8% in 2020 compared to the previous year, the National Statistics Institute (INE) announced on Wednesday in the bulletin of statistics on External Trade in Goods.

"In 2020, goods worth a total of $10 059 million were transacted with foreign countries compared to $12 096 million recorded in 2019," reads the document dedicated to the year in which the world began to face the economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic.

The highest ever level of Mozambique's trade in goods with foreign countries "was reached in 2013 with $14.12 billion," he adds.

Between 2019 and 2020, the trade balance worsened by about $123.6 million, from -2.758 billion in 2019 to -2.882 billion in 2020.

Looking at the two plates of the trade balance, in 2020, the country exported goods worth a total of $3,588 million, "equivalent to a drop of 23.1% from the $4,668 million recorded in 2019." 

On the import side "an overall value of $6,470 million was recorded, which was also a drop of 12.9% from the $7,427 million recorded in 2019." 

In both 2019 and 2020 South Africa was the main partner in trade with Mozambique. 

In terms of imports from the European Union, Portugal was Mozambique's main partner (33.5%), followed by Italy (16.0%), Germany (11.9%) and the Netherlands (8.2%).

Lusa Agency