Exports grew by 2.3% and trade deficit shrank by 31.4% to June

Meanwhile imports were down by 0.5% to 135.92 billion euros. In volume terms imports grew by 4.6% since prices shrank by 4.9%.

Consequently, the trade deficit from January to June stood at 7.88 billion euros, 31.4% lower than the figure for the same period 2015. The coverage rate was 94.2%, 2.6 percentage points higher than the figure posted for January-June 2015 (91.6%). The non-energy balance posted a surplus of 99.4 million euros (2.56 billion euros in January-June 2015) while the energy balance shrank by 43.2% (reduction of the energy deficit), benefiting from a substantial drop in energy prices.

If we compare Spain's export growth in the first half-year (2.3%) with that of the rest of the world, it compares favourably with the negative growth posted by the Eurozone (-0.2%) and by the European Union as a whole (-0.8%). Exports from France (-1.2% year-on-year) and the UK (-5.3%) also shrank, while Italy's figure was unchanged (0.0%) and Germany reported positive growth, albeit to a lesser extent than Spain (1.5%). Outside the EU, exports from the USA (-6.5%), China (-6.9%) and Japan (-8.7%) also declined.

Economic sectors

In the first six months of 2016 exports of the main categories performed positively. Capital goods (20.2% of the total) grew by 5.2% year-on-year, the automotive sector (18.9% of the total) continued its strong growth with 13.3% year-on-year, while exports from the food, drink and tobacco sector (17.1% of the total) also increased, by 6.3%. Conversely, sales abroad from the energy products sector decreased (-7.9% year-on-year) on the back of low energy prices, as did exports from the non-chemical semi-manufactures (-4.6%), raw materials (-10.5%) and other goods (-51.6%) sectors.

Consequently, the main positive contributions to exports came from the automotive sector (a contribution of 2.3 percentage points to total export growth), food, drink and tobacco (1.0 points), capital goods (1.0 points), consumer manufactures (0.7 points) and durable consumer goods (0.2 points). The only negative contributions in the period came from the sectors of other goods (-1.7 points), non-chemical semi-manufactures (-0.5 points), energy products (-0.4 points), and raw materials (-0.3 points).

By sub-sectors, the main positive contributions were from cars and motorcycles (1.9 points, mainly due to stronger sales to Germany, Italy, Belgium, and the UK); road haulage equipment (0.7 points, to the UK, Italy, Netherlands and Belgium); clothing (0.4 points, to Italy, the UK, the USA and China); and automotive components (0.3 points, to Morocco, France, Romania and Sweden).

Conversely, the subsectors that most dragged exports were iron and steel (-0.6 points, mainly due to lower sales to Algeria, Italy, the USA and Germany); aircraft (-0.3 points, to Saudi Arabia, Australia and Libya); minerals (-0.3 points, largely to Bulgaria and, to a lesser extent, to China, France and India); and medicines (-0.2 points, especially to Italy, followed by the UK, the USA and Hungary).

With regard to imports, the consolidation of the recovery of the Spanish economy is driving growth in most sectors. Imports of capital goods (21.7% of the total) rose by 9.5% year-on-year, while automotive sector imports (14.8% of the total) grew by 7.1%. Purchases from abroad of consumer manufactures and durable consumer goods increased by 8.6% and 9.7% respectively.

Thus, the main positive contributions to imports in the period January-June 2016 came from the capital goods sector (a contribution of 1.9 points). The only negative contributions were those of energy products (-4.8 points), raw materials (-0.4 points), and non-chemical semi-manufactures (-0.2 points).

By sub-sectors, the main positive contributions came from cars and motorcycles (1.0 points, mainly due to the increased sales to Germany, Italy, Japan and Belgium); clothing (0.6 points, mostly to Turkey, Morocco, Bangladesh and Cambodia), general purpose machinery (0.4 points, to China, Czech Republic, France and Italy), and aircraft (0.4 points, to USA, Canada, France, and UK).

Conversely, the subsectors in which imports decreased the most were oil and oil derivates (-3.7 points, mainly due to decreased sales to Angola, Nigeria, Mexico and Saudi Arabia), gas (-0.7 points, largely as a result of falling imports from Algeria and, to a lesser extent, to Qatar, Norway and Trinidad and Tobago), and minerals (-0.5 points, to USA, Chile, UK, and France).

Geographic areas

Exports to the European Union (66.9% of the total) increased by 5.7% in January-June 2016 compared to the same period of the previous year. In the case of sales to the Eurozone (52.1% of the total) and to the rest of the European Union (14.7% of the total), the increase was 5.2% and 7.5% respectively. However, the unfavourable trade cycle in emerging countries caused exports to third countries (33.1% of the total) to drop by 3.8% in this period, with negative export growth to the Middle East (-3.9%), Latin America (-12.2%), Africa (-0.5%) and Oceania (-30.8%), while exports to Asia excluding the Middle East (1.0%) and North America (1.8%) increased. In spite of the overall drop in sales to third country markets, special note should be made of sales to markets with high potential such as Chile (+10.9%), China (+14.9%), Morocco (18.1%), and the USA (+2.5%).

The countries making the greatest positive contribution to the year-on-year rate of change of Spanish exports in the period January-June 2016 (2.3%) were Germany (1.0 points, due to stronger sales of cars and motorcycles, fruit, vegetables and legumes, and electric appliances), the UK (0.8 points, due to export growth of cars and motorcycles and, to a lesser extent, of road haulage equipment and aircraft), Italy (0.6 points, mostly due to the increase in exports of cars and motorcycles, road haulage equipment and of clothing), and Belgium (0.6 points, due to stronger exports of cars and motorcycles and, to a lesser extent, of oil and oil derivates).

Conversely, the largest negative contributions were made by Saudi Arabia (-0.4 points, due to lower sales of aircraft, oil and oil derivates and general purpose machinery), Gibraltar (-0.3 points, due almost entirely to the drop in exports of oil and oil derivates, of cars and motorcycles, and minerals), Brazil (-0.3 points, due to the drop in exports of cars and motorcycles, medicines, and electric appliances) and Australia (-0.2 points, mostly due to lower exports of aircraft, cars and motorcycles, and medicines).

By autonomous regions, the greatest year-on-year rate of change of exports in January-June 2016 was posted by Castile and Leon (18.7% year-on-year), Castile-La Mancha (11.8%) and Cantabria (10.6%). Conversely, the regions posting the most negative year-on-year changes were the Canary Islands (-20.3% year-on-year), the Balearics (-20.1%) and Asturias (-12.5%).

In terms of contribution to the year-on-year rate of change of total exports, the greatest positive contributions were made by Castile and Leon (1.1 percentage points), whose exports accounted for 6.6% of the total and grew by 18.7% year-on-year, and the Region of Valencia (1.0 percentage points), whose sales abroad accounted for 12.0% of the total and increased by 8.9% year-on-year. The regions with the highest negative contributions were the Region of Madrid with -0.5 points (10.7% of the total of exports, down by 4.1%) and the Region of Murcia with -0.2 points (3.4% of the total, down by 5.7%).

Exports from Catalonia (25.4% of the total) grew by 2.0% while those from Andalusia (10.1% of the total) increased by 0.2%. Exports from the Basque Country (8.5% of the total) increased by 1.3% and those from Galicia (7.6% of the total) grew by 5.5%.

June 2016

Spanish exports of goods in June grew by 2.1% in year-on-year terms to 22,681.3 million euros, the highest figure since records began for this month. In volume terms the increase was higher, 4.2% year-on-year, due to the fact that prices measured using Unit Value Indices fell by 2%. In deseasonalised terms the increase was 1.3%.

Imports in June 2016 fell by 0.9% in year-on-year terms to 24.04 billion euros. However, in volume terms imports increased by 2.5% since import prices shrank by 3.3%.

As a result, in June 2016 the trade balance posted a deficit of 1.36 billion euros, 33.7% less than in the same month of 2015 (a deficit of 2.05 billion euros). The coverage rate stood at 94.4%, 2.8 percentage points higher than in June 2015 (91.6%). The non-energy balance posted a deficit of 33.2 million euros (versus a surplus of 385.9 million euros in June 2015) and the energy deficit fell by 45.6%.

Export growth in Spain (+2.1%) contrasts with the negative figures posted in the Eurozone (-1.8%) and in the European Union (-2.3%). Also down were exports from France (-6.1% year-on-year), Italy (-0.5%) and the UK (-4.5%), while exports from Germany increased by 1.2% year-on-year. Outside the EU, exports from the USA (-4.5% year-on-year), China (-6.0%) and Japan (-7.4%) also declined.

Economic sectors

Contributions to export growth in June came from the automotive sector (a contribution of 2.7 points), capital goods (1.5 points), food, drink and tobacco (0.9 points), and consumer manufactures (0.4 points). Conversely, the only sectors that contributed negatively were other goods (a contribution of -1.6 points), with a drop in the 51.0%, chemical products (a contribution of -0.8 points), down by 5.2%, non-chemical semi-manufactures (a contribution of -0.7 points), and energy products (-0.4 points).

By sub-sectors, the main positive contributions came from cars and motorcycles (3.1 points, mainly due to stronger sales to Germany, the UK, Italy and Belgium), road haulage equipment (0.9 points, to the UK, Italy, Belgium and then, some way behind, to the Netherlands), engines (0.7 points, especially to the USA and, to a lesser extent, France, the UK and Algeria), and meat products (0.5 points, largely to China, Libya, Hong-Kong and Japan). Conversely, the subsectors that most dragged exports were iron and steel (-0.5 points, mainly due to lower sales to Algeria, Italy, Turkey and the USA), automotive components (-0.4 points, almost entirely due to the drop in sales to the UK, followed some way behind by Germany, Romania and the USA), organic chemical products (-0.4 points, to Portugal, and to a lesser extent to the Netherlands, Germany and Greece), and medicines (-0.2 points, largely due to lower sales to Indonesia and, to a much lesser extent, to the UK and Canada).

Geographic areas

In June 2016 exports to the European Union accounted for 66.6% of the total, a higher figure than the 63.9% posted in June the previous year. This percentage gain was due to both the Eurozone (52.2% versus 51.0% in June 2015) and the rest of the European Union (14.3% in June 2016 versus 12.9% in the same month the previous year).

Exports to the European Union grew by 6.4% year-on-year and those to the Eurozone increased by 4.6%, while those to the rest of the European Union grew to a greater extent, (13.6%). As for our main trade partners, exports to Germany (8.9%), Italy (18.0%) and the UK (19.4%) posted the strongest growth.

Exports to countries not belonging to the European Union accounted for 33.4% of the total (36.1% in June 2015), a 5.4% drop versus the same month of the previous year. By regions, exports were down in the Middle East (-27.2%), Oceania (-21.9%) and Latin America (-13.1%), due to the lower exports to Chile (-5.0%), Mexico (-8.2%), Argentina (-24.6%) and Brazil (-9.5%). Exports to North America (+0.1%), Africa (+3.4%) and Asia excluding the Middle East (+10.3%) all increased. By countries we would highlight stronger sales to China (+22.1%), Morocco (+26.0%) and Canada (+2.0%), while on the negative side, sales to the aforementioned Latin America countries plus Australia (-20.9%), Saudi Arabia (-61.4%) and the United Arab Emirates (-9.4%) declined.

The countries with the highest positive contribution to the year-on-year rate of change of Spanish exports in June 2016 (2.1%) were the UK (1.3 points, due to stronger sales of cars and motorcycles, road haulage equipment and engines), Italy (1.3 points, largely due to the increase of exports of cars and motorcycles, non-ferrous metals and road haulage equipment), Germany (0.9 points, due stronger exports of cars and motorcycles, road haulage equipment, and other consumer manufactures), and Morocco (0.6 points, due to increased exports of oil and oil derivates, automotive components and electric appliances).

Conversely, the largest negative contributions came from Saudi Arabia (-1.3 points, due to lower sales of aircraft and, to a lesser extent, of oil and oil derivates, and clothing), France (-0.9 points, largely due to a drop in exports of cars and motorcycles, oil and oil derivates, and road haulage equipment), Gibraltar (-0.4 points, almost entirely due to a drop in exports of oil and oil derivates, cars and motorcycles, and tobacco), and South Korea (-0.3 points, due to lower exports of oil and oil derivates, cars and motorcycles, and iron and steel).

Spain's trade surplus with the European Union stood at 1.19 billion euros in June 2016 (versus a surplus of 570.8 million euros in June 2015, provisional figures). The trade balance with the Eurozone recorded a surplus of 628.1 million euros (versus a surplus of 500.0 million euros in the same month of the previous year). Meanwhile, the trade deficit with non-EU countries dropped by 2.7% compared to June 2015 to -2.55 billion euros (versus a deficit of 2.62 billion euros in June 2015).