In the quarter ended in October 2015, exports of goods increased by 0.3% and imports of goods decreased by 1.2%, when compared with the quarter ended in October 2014. Trade balance deficit reached EUR 2 737.6 million, which represents a decrease of EUR 209.0 million in comparison with the same period of the preceding year. The coverage rate rose to 81.4% (+1.2 percentage points when compared with the same period of the previous year).
In October 2015, in terms of year-on-year change rates, exports of goods decreased by 2.5% and imports of goods fell by 3.9% (+1.6% and -0.6% respectively in September 2015). Excluding Fuels and lubricants, exports decreased by 0.6% and imports increased by 1.2% (+3.3% and +6.6% respectively in September 2015).
In the first three quarters of 2015, there was clearly a high exposure of the exporting enterprises in relation to some of the main Extra-EU markets, especially Angola, which was the exclusive destination of more than half of the exporting enterprises to that country (see page at the end of this press release).