Chinese exports to Portuguese-speaking countries rose 0.9% in the first ten months of 2025, compared to the same period last year, according to official data released this Monday, December 1st.
According to information from the Chinese Customs Service, goods sold to Portuguese-speaking markets until October reached 72.6 billion dollars (62.5 billion euros).
This value represents an increase of 0.9% compared to the same period in 2024, the year in which Chinese exports to the countries set a new record: 85.5 billion dollars (73.7 billion euros).
Data compiled and released by the Forum for Economic and Commercial Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macao Forum) reveal that Angola was the main reason for the rise.
Chinese goods sold to Angola reached 4.04 billion dollars (3.48 billion euros) by October, a year-on-year increase of more than half (51.1%).
Despite a year-on-year decline of 2.9%, Brazil continues to be the largest buyer in the Portuguese-speaking bloc, having purchased products worth 59 billion dollars (50.9 billion euros) from China.
Second on the list – and in the opposite direction – comes Portugal, whose imports from China increased by 14.8% to 5.88 billion dollars (5.07 billion euros).
In the opposite direction, exports from Portuguese-speaking countries to China fell 5.9%, to 112.2 billion dollars (96.7 billion euros) in the first ten months.
According to official data, this is the lowest value for the period between January and October since 2020, at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic.
The decline was mainly due to Brazil – by far the largest Portuguese-speaking supplier in the Chinese market – whose sales fell 4.7% to 94.9 billion dollars (81.8 billion euros).
Furthermore, the second largest Chinese trading partner in the Portuguese-speaking bloc, Angola, saw exports fall 12.8%, to 12.9 billion dollars (11.1 billion euros).
Sales of goods from Portugal to China decreased by 7.6%, compared to the first ten months of 2024, to 2.39 billion dollars (2.06 billion euros).
In fact, six of the nine Portuguese-speaking countries reduced exports to the Chinese market.
Mozambique’s sales to the Chinese market fell 8%, to US$1.35 billion (€1.16 billion), while Equatorial Guinea’s exports shrank 28.5%, to US$634.3 million (€546.5 million).
Cape Verde’s remittances decreased by 37.1%, with the country selling only around eight thousand dollars (close to seven thousand euros) in goods to China between January and October.
Timor-Leste stood out on a positive note, with exports to China rising from just 632 thousand dollars (544 thousand euros) to 26.8 million dollars (23.1 million euros) in the space of a year.
Sales from São Tomé and Príncipe also grew nine times, to 51 thousand dollars (44 thousand euros), while the value of exports from Guinea-Bissau went from zero to eight thousand dollars.
China continues to record a trade deficit with the Portuguese-speaking bloc, which reached 39.6 billion dollars (34.1 billion euros) in the first ten months of 2025.
In total, trade between Portuguese-speaking countries and China reached 184.8 billion dollars (159.2 billion euros), 3.4% less than in the same period last year.