Monthly report. November 2021.

International trade hits record high in November

2022.1.20

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The Secretary of State for Trade, Xiana Méndez, highlighted that "in November 2021, both exports and imports continued to grow very strongly, setting new record highs. Foreign trade is once again becoming an engine of economic growth and a generator of employment, thanks to our exporting companies which are very competitive and well positioned in international markets.

Imports increased by 36.3% year-on-year to €34,516 million. As a result, a deficit of €4,207 million was recorded in November 2021 (deficit of €593 million in November 2020 with provisional data). The coverage rate stood at 87.8%, 9.8 percentage points lower than in August 2020.

If the rate of change is calculated with respect to November 2019 (provisional data), exports grew by 20.9% and imports by 28.2% (17.3% and 23.2% respectively with the seasonally adjusted and calendar-adjusted series).

Spain's increase in exports in November (22.6%) was larger than that recorded by the euro area (18.0%) and the EU27 (17.4%). Among the major European economies, exports also grew in Italy (16.8%), Germany (12.1% year-on-year), France (12.8%) and the UK (5.6%). In the rest of the world, exports from the United States increased by 23.5 per cent year-on-year, from China by 16.6 per cent year-on-year and from Japan by 20.5 per cent year-on-year.

The main positive contributions to the annual rate of change of exports came from the energy products sector (contribution of 6.2 points), chemicals (contribution of 6.0 points), non-chemical semi-manufactures (contribution of 3.8 points) and food, beverages and tobacco (contribution of 3.2 points).

Cumulative data January-November

Spanish exports of goods rose by 21.2% in the period from January-June compared to the same period of the previous year (provisional data), reaching €288,991million. Imports also grew by 23.6% to €309,827 million.

As a result, the trade deficit for the first six months of the year reached €20,836 million, 68.7% more than the same period of 2020. The coverage rate - the ratio of exports to imports - stood at 93.3% (95.1% in January-August 2020, provisional data).

The year-on-year growth of Spanish exports between January and October (21.2%) was higher than that recorded in the EU27 and the eurozone (16.7% YoY in both cases). It was also higher than in Italy (18.4%), France (14.9%), Germany (13.8%) and the UK (8.3%).

The main positive contributions to the annual rate of change of exports from January to November 2021 came from the chemicals sector (contribution of 4.7 points), non-chemical semi-manufactures (contribution of 3.5 points), energy products (contribution of 3.1 points) and capital goods (contribution of 2.9 points). No sector contributed negatively.

Non official translation