According to data from Gfk consultant, an independent entity that in Portugal audits and counts book sales throughout the year, during the first six months of the year, the average price of books increased slightly, by 4.2 percent, to the equivalent of €12.98 on average.

The best-selling book categories were “Technical / Scientific” and “Practical life / Leisure / News”, recording rises of 22.9 percent and 23.2 percent respectively.

In terms of sales channels, bookstores were the spaces most chosen by consumers for the purchase of books, corresponding to 61.6 percent of the total, which translated into an increase of 16.9 percent over the same period last year. A total of 38.4 percent of book sales were made through supermarkets.

Approximately a year ago, in October 2020, the sale of books in Portugal was recovering from the abrupt drop it registered due to the pandemic, but even so, it continued to register a drop of 15.8 percent.

Finally, GfK concludes that interest in e-books is starting to wane and has not been able to keep up with the positive development it had in the previous year.