According to data published by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism (MINCOTUR), Spanish goods exports rose by 3.2% in the period from January to September 2018 compared to the same period of the previous year, to reach 212,163 million euros. Imports grew by 5.5% to 236,350 million euros. As a result, the trade deficit for the first nine months of the year reached 24,187 million euros, 30.3% higher than that recorded in the same period of 2017. The previous report of the MINCOTUR, recorded an increase of 2.9% in goods exports in the first half of the year.
The coverage rate stood at 89.8% (91.7% in January-September 2017). In terms of volume, exports increased by 0.2%, since prices, approximate on the Unit Value Indexes basis, increased by 3.0%; and imports grew by 1.4%, as prices increased by 4.0%.
The non-energy balance showed a deficit of 5,894 million euros (accumulated deficit of 2,557 million euros up to September 2017) and the energy deficit increased by 14.3% to 18,293 million euros (deficit of 16,005 million in 2017).
The Spanish exports growth between January and September (3.2%) exceeds that of Italy (3.1%), is slightly lower than that of France (3.6%) and Germany (3.6%) and significantly lower than that recorded by the United Kingdom (7.5%). The growth of the European Union average (4.7%) and of the entire euro zone (4.6%) was higher. Exports from China (11.8%), the US (9.1%) and Japan (5.1%) also increased.
Increase in transactions in almost all sectors
All sectors experienced growth in their exports except for the capital goods sector (accounting for 19.7% of the total and decreasing by 0.4%). The automotive sector (15.9% of the total) increased by 0.2% and that of food, beverages and tobacco (16.1% of the total) grew by 0.1%.
On the other hand, imports also increased in all sectors except for the consumer-manufacturing sector (accounting for 11.5%), where they fell by 0.1%. Noteworthy are the increases in chemical products (15.4% of the total) which increased by 8.3%; those of energy products (14.7% of the total): 15.8% and those of the automobile sector (12.7% of the total): 4.0%.
Exports to the EU growing
Exports targeted to the European Union (65.8% of the total) increased by 3.2% in the first nine months of the year. Sales to the euro zone (51.6% of the total) rose by 3.1% and those sent to the rest of the European Union (14.2% of the total) rose by 3.3%.
Sales to third-party destinations (34.2% of the total) grew by 3.3% in this period, with increases in exports to all major areas except Oceania, where they decreased by 2.3%. The largest increases were recorded in those targeting Africa (2.8%), North America (2.6%) and Asia excluding the Middle East (1.9%). By country, we can highlight the sales increases to Singapore (42.9%), Algeria (21.8%), Egypt (19.7%) and the United States (3.1%), as well as the reductions to Peru (-16,1%), United Arab Emirates (-14.3%), Hong Kong (-10.2%) and Brazil (-3.8%).
The Autonomous Communities with the highest growth in their exports were the Comunidad Foral de Navarra (13.6%), Cantabria (8.5%) and Andalucía (8%). Coversely, the greatest decreases were recorded in Aragón (-3.3%), the Community of Madrid (-2.9%) and Castilla y León (-2.7%).
