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The 2% increase, in September, in the Portuguese textile and clothing exports, has proved to be insufficient to bring the numbers back into positive levels. Considering the overall of this year’s first nine months, the exports of our Textile and Clothing Industry reached 3.957 million euro, a 0.9% drop when compared to the same period of 2018.
In the numbers published by the Portuguese Statistics Institute, one of the highlights is the 8.5% growth of sales to the US, who already make up 6% of the total exports of our industry, following the UK (7%) and Germany (8%), our third biggest market, completing a podium where France (13%) and Spain (31%) take the highest spots.
Also worth registering the 4.7% growth in sales to non-EU destinations, where the US registers the highest increase in absolute value (+19.8 million euro, i.e., +8.5%). Turkey, Canada, India, Vietnam and Trinidad and Tobago are the other non-EU destinations that fill the ranking of highest growth in sales.
Compared to last year, the EU destinations have registered a 2% drop in the first nine months of the year. Spain and Germany featured the steepest drops, respectively 49 million euro (i.e. -3.8%) and 16 million euro (i.e. -4.5%).