Monthly Foreign Trade Report, February 2022

Spanish exports up to February grew by 28.3%, reaching a new all-time high

2022.4.18

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Imports also rose by 43.5% to 67.296 billion euros, another all-time high.

As the Secretary of State for Trade, Xiana Méndez, stated: "Exports and imports continued to grow strongly in February. She stressed that trade is growing faster in Spain than in many of the major economies around us.

In addition, Méndez indicated that "the non-energy deficit is moderate, as it stands at less than 626 million in the last month of February and coverage stands at 98%".

The coverage rate - export/import ratio - stood at 84.0%. In volume terms, exports rose 11.1%, as prices, approximated by Unit Value Indices, increased by 15.5%. Imports increased by 16.9%, as prices grew 22.7%.

The year-on-year growth of Spanish exports in January and February (28.3%) was higher than that of neighbouring economies, higher than that recorded in France (23.0%), the United Kingdom (19.3%) and Germany (12.8%).

Outside Europe, US sales also grew. USA. (18.4%), China (13.6%) and Japan (14.4%).

The main positive contributions to the annual rate of change in exports came from chemicals, energy products, non-chemical semi-manufactures and food, drinks and tobacco.

Exports to the European Union (63.0% of the total) grew by 31.7% in the first two months of the year. Sales to the eurozone (55.5% of the total) increased by 32.3% and sales to the rest of the European Union (7.5% of the total) grew by 27.3%.

Sales to third countries (37.0% of the total) grew by 23.1% in this period, with increases in exports to North America (33.8%), Latin America (32.2%), Africa (24.7%), the Middle East (11.6%) and Asia excluding the Middle East (0.6%).

The regional governments with the highest growth in exports were the Canary Islands, the Community of Madrid and the Principality of Asturias.

Data for February

In February, according to Customs-declared trade data, Spanish exports of goods increased by 27.1% more than the same month in 2021, to 29,920 billion euros, an all-time high for a February. Imports increased 38.8% year-on-year to 34.172 billion euros, another all-time high.

As a result, a deficit of 4.252 billion euros was recorded in February 2022. The coverage rate stood at 87.6%, 8.0 percentage points lower than in February 2021 (95.6% with provisional data). This deficit is significantly lower than the previous two months (-5,342 in December 2021 and -6,523 in January 2022) and similar to last November.

"85% of the deficit in February 2022 is explained by the energy deficit, which has more than doubled compared to February 2021 due to the recovery in the demand for fuel and the significant increase in fuel prices," explains Xiana Méndez.

Spain's increase in exports in February (27.1%) was larger than that recorded in France (19.8%), Germany (14.4%) and the United Kingdom (11.6%). In the rest of the world, United States exports increased by 21.5% year-on-year, and from Japan by 19.1% year-on-year.

The main positive contributions to the annual rate of change in exports came from chemicals, energy products, non-chemical semi-manufactures and food, drinks and tobacco.

In February 2022, exports to the EU represented 62.4% of the total (59.8% in February 2021) and increased 32.7%. Those to the eurozone increased 33.0% and those to the rest of the EU by 30.1%. Of the main partners, the increases in sales to Portugal (57.2%), Italy (19.9%), France (19.1%) and Germany (11.6%) stand out. Finally, exports to third countries (non-EU) accounted for 37.6% of the total and were up 18.8% year-on-year, with sales to the UK increasing by 14.9%.

Non official translation