The European Union has historically been Cabo Verde's most important trading partner, and a common language with several countries in Europe, Africa, South America and the Pacific facilitates cultural and trade links across the globe. The large diaspora of Cabo Verdean communities overseas is also a source of commercial exchanges. Cabo Verde's regional trade with other ECOWAS countries appears to be relatively insignificant, accounting for 1.2% of total imports and 0.1% of Cabo Verdean exports in 2014.25
Merchandise imports in any year are eight to ten times larger than exports. This pattern reflects the Cabo Verdean growth model based on high import content. It also adds to freight costs, as containers have to return empty. Imports are primarily consumer goods (including food), followed by fuel, and capital goods (Chart 1 .2). The large majority of goods is imported, or transhipped, from the EU (Chart 1 .3).
There is little diversity regarding exports of goods, geographically and in terms of the product mix, i.e. mainly fish and fish products, destined for Spain and Portugal. The main export industry is tourism, which contributes roughly half of total goods and services exports. By virtue of its geographical location at the crossroads between continents, navigation services within the Cabo Verdean airspace (so-called Oceanic Flight Information Region) provide significant export earnings.
Chart 1.2 Trade in goods and services, 2014
Source: BCV, Annual Report 2014.
Chart 1.3 Merchandise trade by destination and origin, 2014
Source: BCV, Annual Report 2014.
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