Portugal February trade deficit shrinks, Brexit hits UK trade

LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's imports of goods from Britain slumped 56% in February from a year ago after Brexit, compared to a drop of just 10.3% from 27 European Union countries, the National Statistics Institute said on Friday.

At the same time, exports to the United Kingdom fell over 15%, while sales to the European Union edged 1.3% higher and total exports rose 2.3%.

The INE said Portugal's global trade deficit in February shrank to 708 million euros ($841.6 million) from nearly 1.55 billion euros a year earlier. Total imports of goods fell nearly 11%.

(Reporting by Andrei Khalip)