Portuguese-speaking countries’ exports to China dropped 26.01 percent in the first four months of 2025, compared to the same period last year, according to data from the Chinese Customs Service shared by Forum Macao.
Released on Tuesday, the official figures show that Portuguese-speaking countries sold US$34.285 billion in goods to China between January and April, the lowest value for this period since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The drop largely reflects a nearly 30-percent decrease in sales from Brazil, China’s largest trading partner in the nine-member bloc. Brazil sold US$27.101 billion in goods during the fourth-month period, down 29.8 percent from 2024.
Nearly every lusophone nation saw its sales to China decrease during the period, with the exception of Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. Guinea-Bissau did not export any goods during the period, which is not unusual for the country as the growing season for cashews, which account for some 90 percent of Bissau-Guinean exports, runs from March to June.
Mozambique, on the other hand, saw exports to China jump 26.3 percent compared to the first four months of 2024, reaching US$604.71 million in sales.
[See more: China cements status as a key trade partner for Mozambique]
Angola and Portugal, the largest trade partners after Brazil, saw smaller declines than their South American counterpart. Angola dipped a more modest 6.1 percent compared to the same four-month period in 2024, to US$5.492 billion, while Portugal dropped 12.5 percent to US$883.2 million. The biggest drops in sales were seen among the smallest countries in the bloc, namely Equatorial Guinea (-48.1 percent), Timor-Leste (-96.1 percent), Cabo Verde (-83.3 percent), and São Tomé and Príncipe (-58.3 percent).
Chinese exports to the Portuguese-speaking world, by contrast, had the strongest start to the year seen since Forum Macao began tracking such data in 2013. Lusophone nations bought US$26.711 billion in Chinese goods, up 3.4 percent from the same period last year.
Brazil remained the largest trading partner despite a small drop (-0.2%) to US$21.5 billion, while the next two largest buyers increased their purchases. Portugal bought 6.4 percent more, up to US$2.085 billion, while Angolan purchases surged 92.5 percent to US$1.92 billion. São Tomé and Príncipe recorded the biggest increase (+376.1 percent) while Guinea-Bissau (-36.7 percent) had the biggest drop in Chinese goods purchased during the period.
Despite purchasing less and selling more, China recorded a trade deficit with lusophone nations of US$7.575 billion for the first four months of 2025. Total trade between the bloc and China for the January to April 2025 period reached US$60.995 billion, down 15.5 percent compared to the same period in 2024.
