Exports continue to grow, rising 0.8% year-on-year, outpacing major European economies

The Spanish foreign trade sector continues to show dynamism and continued to grow in May 2025, with exports increasing by 0.8% year-on-year. Specifically, Spanish goods exports for the month reached €34.9 billion, the second highest value for May in the entire historical series, as shown by the data on trade declared by Customs and detailed in the Minister for Economy, Trade and Business' Monthly International Trade Report, produced by the Secretary of State for Trade.

In seasonally adjusted and calendar adjusted terms, exports grew by 2.7% year-on-year.

Imports, on the other hand, stood at €37.54 billion and increased by 1.3%. In seasonally adjusted and calendar adjusted terms, import growth stood at 3.1% year-on-year.

In an international context of high uncertainty, Spanish exports demonstrated a more dynamic performance than Germany (0.4%), France (-2.4%) and Italy (-1.9%), and similar to the average of the eurozone and the European Union, of 1.1%, respectively.

Compared to other major economies outside the European Union, the Spanish figures also stand out compared to countries such as the United Kingdom, whose exports fell by 5.5%, and Japan, which experienced a decline of 1.7%. In contrast, China's exports grew by 6.3% year-on-year and those of the United States by 5.8% year-on-year.

Trade balance

After starting the year with a deficit of €6.19 billion euros, the trade balance has been improving so far in 2025, reaching a deficit of €2.54 billion euros in May.

The trade surplus with the European Union stood at €3.12 billion (surplus of €3.38 billion in May 2024), uninterrupted since January 2017. The trade deficit with non-EU destinations was in line with the previous year, at €5.66 billion euros.

Destination markets and sectors

The destination markets with the largest surpluses in May were France (€1.57 billion euros), Portugal (€1.53 billion euros), the United Kingdom (€1.52 billion euros) and the Netherlands (508 million euros).

The trade deficit with the United States stood at €716 million in May, an improvement on the figures for April (deficit of €1.25 billion) or May 2024 (deficit of €963 million). However, over the last 12 months, it has progressively increased from just under €10 billion in July 2024 to €11.35 billion in May 2025.

By sector, the surpluses in food, beverages and tobacco (€1.72 billion euros), chemical products (€706 million), non-chemical semi-manufactures (€683 million) and the automobile sector (€571 million) stood out.

In May, the sectors with the largest positive contributions to the annual rate of change in exports were: chemicals, food, beverages and tobacco, consumer manufactures and consumer durables. An all-time high for the month of May was reached for chemicals, food, beverages and tobacco, and consumer manufactures.

It is worth noting that the energy deficit fell by 27.2% year-on-year in May 2025, while non-energy exports rose by 3.5%, compared to the same month of the previous year.

By destination market, exports to the EU27 accounted for 63.2% of the total, rising by 6.7%. Record figures for the month were achieved in nine EU destinations, including Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, Poland, Greece and Romania.

Exports to non-EU destinations accounted for 36.8% of the total. Record highs were achieved for the month in important markets for Spain, such as the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Chile and Peru.

Foreign trade data January to May 2025

In the cumulative year to May 2025, exports of goods reached €163.38 billion, the second highest figure for the period. Imports amounted to €184.9 billion.

The trade deficit reached €21.53 billion euros, due to an increase in the non-energy deficit. The coverage rate stood at 88.4%, an decrease of 3.1 percentage point.

The sectors with the largest surpluses in the first five months of the year were: food, beverages and tobacco (€8.74 billion euros), other merchandise (€2.89 million), non-chemical semi-manufactures (€2.85 million) and the automotive sector (€1.83 million).

The trade surplus with the European Union stood at €11.15 billion euros in the period. With respect to non-EU countries, the trade deficit increased to €32.67 billion. The countries against which the Spanish economy recorded the largest surpluses were France (€7.92 billion euros), Portugal (€7.02 billion euros) and the United Kingdom (€6.2 billion euros).

The number of regular exporters (those who exported more than €1,000 in the reference year and in each of the three immediately preceding years) continued to grow in the year to May to 42,333 exporters, exceeding the figure for the same period in 2024.

Non official translation.