- Exports have increased by 4.1% so far this year, reaching 146,161.5 million euros
- From January to August there are surpluses of 7,621.6 million euros with the EU and 5,042.5 million with the euro area
- The increase in exports to countries outside the EU worth 6,258 million stands out.
- In August, exports increased 7.4% year-on-year and the trade deficit decreased 36.1%
In the first eight months of 2012, Spanish merchandise exports stood at 146,161.5 million euros, 4.1% higher than the same period in 2011. This figure continues on the path of consolidation, including with a slight increase, from the notable increase in exports recorded in 2011 compared to 2010 (15.4%). Imports have registered a decrease of 0.8% year-on-year, to 169,640.7 million euros.
As a result of these figures, the trade deficit decreased by 23.3% year-on-year in the period from January to August to stand at 23,479.3 million euros. The trade balance with the EU reaches a surplus of 7,621.8 million euros, more than double that registered in the same period in 2011 (3,336.8 million euros). The euro area also registers a significant increase in the surplus, which goes from 1,424.4 million euros in the first eight months of 2011 to 5,042.5 million euros this year. Exports to countries outside the EU include the increases in exports to Africa (2,179 million euros), Latin America (1,217.9 million euros) and Asia (1,211.6 million euros).
The energy deficit increases 15.5% year-on-year, while the non-energy surplus goes from a deficit of 3,372.6 million euros between January and August 2011 to a surplus of 8,013.0 million euros in the same period of 2012 .
Lastly, the coverage rate for the period was 86.2%, a result 4.1 percentage points higher than that achieved in the first eight months of 2011.
Analysis by sector: exports
During the first eight months of 2012, all exporting sectors have experienced positive behavior except for automobiles and non-chemical semi-manufactures. The main sectors have been capital goods and food, with respective shares of 19.3% and 15.1% of the total. The former have increased by 0.8% year-on-year and the latter have increased by 11.7%.
Exports of chemical products (14.5% of the total) have also shown positive records, with a growth of 7.5%. Non-chemical semi-manufactures (11.8% of the total) have fallen 1.7%.
Exports from the automobile sector (14.0% of the total) fell by 8.7%, with falls of 11.9% in the finished vehicles heading and 1.9% in the components heading.
Foreign sales of consumer manufactures (8.3% of the total) have grown 5.8% compared to the values of the first eight months of 2011.
Exports of energy products (7.0% of the total) have registered an increase of 13.8%, with increases of 163.1% in the gas heading, 35.7% in that of coal and electricity and 8 , 9% in oil and derivatives.
Lastly, sales abroad of raw materials (2.7% of the total) have grown by 5.1%, as have those of durable consumer goods (1.6% of the total), with an increase of 3, 2% in the interannual rate.
Analysis by sector: imports
Regarding imports, energy products (the main importing sector of the period, with a share of 24.6% of the total) have grown by 15.1%. By items, there have been increases of 13.6% in purchases of oil and derivatives and 20.5% in purchases of gas.
Purchases of capital goods abroad (with a share of 16.5%) have decreased by 8.2% year-on-year, while those of chemical products (15.1% of the total) have increased by 1.3%.
Imports from the automobile sector (9.4% of the total) have decreased by 9.4%, as a consequence of the 9.7% decrease in purchases of finished vehicles and the 9.3% decrease in component purchases.
Foreign purchases of food (10.7% of the total) and consumer manufactures (9.6% of the total) have shown opposite behavior, registering a rise of 3.6% in the first case and a reduction of 7.2 % in the second, with respect to the values of the first eight months of 2011.
Geographical analysis: exports
So far in 2012, exports to the European Union (63.0% of the total) have decreased slightly, 0.6%. In the case of sales to the euro area (50.0% of the total), there was a decrease of 1.1%. Conversely, exports to non-euro area EU countries have increased by 1.4% (13.0% of the total).
Sales to France (main destination of our exports with a share of 16.6%) have fallen by 2.2%, while sales to Germany (10.5% of the total) have experienced an increase of 8.5% .
Exports to Belgium (3.6%) and the Netherlands (4.5%) have increased compared to the values of the first eight months of 2011. At the same time, sales to other EU countries such as Portugal (-8.3%), Italy (-5.0%) and the United Kingdom (-3.6%) have decreased.
Sales to non-EU destinations (37.0% of the total in the first eight months of 2012) have registered an increase of 13.1% compared to the values of the same period of the previous year. Exports to all these geographical areas are growing, except in the case of ‘rest of America’, which only represents 0.1% of the total. Exports to non-EU European countries have increased by 4.3% and 7.8% to those of North America (7.3% for the United States and 11.8% for Canada).
For their part, exports to African countries have grown by 29.1% compared to the values of the first eight months of 2011, which represents an increase of 2,179 million euros; Asia 17.3% (1,211.6 million euros more); as well as to Latin American countries 15.3% (an increase of 1,217.9 million euros); and the Middle East, 13.8%.
Geographical analysis: imports
As for imports, those from the European Union (49.8% of the total) have decreased by 5.4% in year-on-year terms. For its part, purchases from countries in the euro zone (40.1% of the total) have fallen by 6.1%.
Imports from the main Community suppliers have only increased in year-on-year terms during the first eight months of 2012 from Ireland (1.2%) and the Netherlands (6.7%). Purchases from France (10.6% of the total) have decreased by 4.3%, as well as from Germany (10.6% of the total) with a drop of 9.7%. The rest have also shown declines: Belgium (-11.0%), Italy (-8.6%), Portugal (-4.4%) and the United Kingdom (-2.6%).
Imports from countries outside the European Union (50.2% of the total for the period) have increased 4.1% year-on-year. In this sense, purchases from Latin American countries have increased by 38.8% and from African countries have increased by 20.1%.
In contrast, purchases from non-EU European countries have decreased by 2.9%. Likewise, imports from Asia (-6.3%) and those from North America (-5.9%) have decreased.
Trade balance
The trade balance until August reached a deficit of 23,479.3 million euros, 23.3% less than in the same period in 2011, when it stood at 30,630.4 million euros.
The trade balance with the European Union registers a surplus of 7,621.8 million euros, more than double that registered in the period January-August 2011 (3,336.8 million euros). Likewise, there is also a surplus with the euro area estimated at 5,042.5 million euros, well above the one reached in the same period of the previous year, when it stood at 1,424.4 million euros.
Finally, compared to non-EU countries, a trade deficit of € 31,100.9 million has been recorded, which represents a decrease of 8.4% in the interannual rate.
August 2012
In the month of August 2012, exports have increased year-on-year to stand at 16,586.9 million euros, while imports have decreased to 19,732.0 million euros, after the advance of last July. Thus, the former have grown by 7.4% and the latter have fallen by 3.1% year-on-year.
As a result, the merchandise trade deficit has decreased by 36.1% year-on-year, standing at 3,145.1 million euros, thus returning to the path of continued decreases in the deficit that started in October 2011 (only interrupted in February and last July). The energy deficit has experienced a growth of 30.7% year-on-year while the non-energy balance has registered a surplus of 1,271.2 million euros due to the deficit of 1,542.8 million registered in August 2011.
Finally, the monthly coverage rate has been 84.1%, 8.3 percentage points higher than that observed in August 2011.
Analysis by sector: exports
In August 2012, the main Spanish exporting sectors have been capital goods (17.7% of the total and an interannual decrease of 3.4%), food (15.6% of the total and an increase of 15.5%) and chemical products (15.0% of the total and an advance of 22.8%).
The exports of the automobile sector, which represent 9.0% of the total, registered for the first time in the year a positive variation rate, with an increase of 1.0%. This behavior is the result of a 1.2% decrease in finished vehicle sales and a 3.2% increase in component sales.
Exports of non-chemical semi-manufactures (11.4% of the total) have decreased by 2.8% and those of consumer manufactures (9.4% of the total) have registered a decrease of 8.3%, while exports of products energy companies (8.1% of the total) have grown by 10.2%.
Analysis by sector: imports
With the exception of energy products, imports have decreased in all sectors. Purchases of capital goods abroad (14.3% of the total) have decreased by 16.3% in the interannual rate and imports of chemical products (14.3 of the monthly total) have decreased at an interannual rate of 4.6 %.
On the other hand, imports from the automobile sector (5.5% of the total) have registered a fall of 24.8%, as a consequence of the falls of 29.8% in purchases of finished vehicles and of 20.9% in component purchases.
Food imports (12.2% of the total) have experienced a decrease of 0.2% in the interannual rate, those of consumer manufactures (11.7% of the total) have decreased by 14.2% and imports of semi-manufactured goods non-chemicals (6.1% of the total) have decreased at an interannual rate of 14.2%.
Imports of energy products (29.2% of the monthly total), on the contrary, experienced an increase of 25.2% year-on-year in August. By heading, purchases of oil have registered an increase of 25.7% and gas purchases have increased by 26.9%.
Geographical analysis: exports
In August 2012, exports to countries outside the European Union (42.7% of the total in August 2012) have registered a growth of 22.2% compared to the values of the same month in 2011. This increase has It took place in all of these geographical areas, with notable increases registered in Africa (31.2%) and North America, which has recorded an increase of 26.4% year-on-year.
In the same sense, sales to non-EU countries in Europe have behaved with growth of 7.2%, to Asia of 7.3% and to Latin America of 14.0%.
In the case of exports to the European Union (57.3% of the monthly total), these have decreased 1.5% in the interannual rate. Likewise, sales to countries in the euro area (44.8% of the total) have decreased slightly, by 0.2%.
Exports to France (our main client with a share of 13.0%) have fallen by 3.8%, while sales to Germany (9.1% of the total) have shown a growth of 6.9% year-on-year.
Sales to some of the main community destinations have seen declines, as in the cases of Portugal (-11.0%) and the United Kingdom (-11.6%), while exports to Italy have increased (7.3 %), Belgium (4.0%) and the Netherlands (1.8%).
Geographical analysis: imports
In August, imports from the European Union (45.3% of the monthly total) decreased by 9.7% in year-on-year terms. In the case of purchases from countries in the euro area (35.9% of the total), the decrease was 10.6%.
Imports from France (8.6% of the total) have fallen by 5.0%. Those from Germany (9.2% of the total) have also decreased by 20.4% compared to the values of August 2011, as have those from Italy (-15.0%) and Belgium (-0.7%). ). For their part, purchases from the United Kingdom increased by 3.0% and those from the Netherlands, 10.2%.
Imports from countries outside the European Union (54.7% of the monthly total) have shown an increase of 3.2% compared to the values of August 2011.
Purchases from Asian countries have decreased by 11.8%; those from the Middle East have registered an interannual decrease of 15.9%; and those of North America, a fall of 25.7%.
On the contrary, those from non-EU European countries have registered a year-on-year growth of 15.8% and imports from Africa (35.7%), Latin America (23.6%), Rest of America have registered important advances. (23.3%) and Oceania (22.6%).
Trade balance
The merchandise trade balance shows a deficit of 3,145.1 million euros, which represents a cut of 36.1% compared to the same month in 2011 (4,922.2 million euros). The trade balance with the European Union registers a surplus, in this case of 557.8 million euros (due to a deficit of 263.6 million euros in the same month of the previous year). Likewise, there is a surplus against the euro area, specifically for a value of 357.9 million euros (due to a deficit of 461.2 million euros in August 2011).
Finally, there is a deficit with non-EU countries that decreases 20.5% compared to the values of August 2011, to stand at 3,702.9 million euros. Asia, Africa and the Middle East are the geographical areas with the highest trade deficits, 2,059.7 million euros in the first case, 1,286.8 million euros, in the second and 723.3 million euros, in the latest.
