The trade deficit decreased 16.6% year-on-year in April 2025 to 3.882 billion euros, driven by the fall in the energy deficit, as shown by the trade data reported by Customs and collected in the Monthly Foreign Trade Report of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business, prepared by the Secretary of State for Trade.
Spanish exports for the month of April 2025 reached 32.510 billion euros, the second highest value in the series for the month of April. This represents export growth in April of 2.2% year-on-year, after correcting for the calendar effect (this year particularly marked as a result of Easter taking place in April, as opposed to 2024 when it took place in March).
Imports, on the other hand, reached 36.393 billion euros, the second highest value in the series for the month of April, and fell by 5.8%. In seasonally adjusted and calendar adjusted terms, exports grew 2.5% year-on-year.
The coverage rate (ratio of exports to imports as a percentage) stood at 89.3%, i.e. 1.3 percentage points higher than in April of the previous year.
By sectors, the surpluses in food, beverages and tobacco (1.920 billion euros), other goods (960.7 million), the automobile sector (477.8 million) and the non-chemical semi-manufacturing sector (372.1 million) stood out.
The trade surplus with the European Union amounted to 1.579 billion euros. The trade deficit with non-EU destinations fell to 5.461 billion euros (deficit of 7.544 billion euros in April 2024).
The destination markets with the highest surpluses in April were France (1.677 billion euros), Portugal (1.383 billion euros) and the United Kingdom (1.245 billion euros).
Sectors and target markets
In April, the sectors with the largest positive contributions to the annual rate of change of exports were other merchandise and food, beverages and tobacco. An all-time high for the month was reached for the food, beverages and tobacco and other merchandise sectors.
By destination market, exports to the EU27 accounted for 59.7% of the total. Record figures for the month were achieved in 5 EU destinations, including Poland, Austria and Slovakia.
Exports to non-EU destinations accounted for 40.3% of the total and rose 2.1% compared to the same month of the previous year. In seasonally adjusted terms, after adjusting for the calendar effect, they rose 5.3% year-on-year. Record highs were achieved for the month in markets of relevance for Spain such as the United Kingdom, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, India and Chile.
Foreign trade data January-April 2025
In the year to April 2025, exports of goods grew 0.8% compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching 128.384 billion euros, the second highest figure for this interval. Imports amounted to 147.366 billion euros.
The sectors with the largest surpluses were: food, beverages and tobacco (7.017 billion euros), other goods (2.511 billion), non-chemical semi-manufactures (2.166 billion) and the automotive sector (1.263 billion).
The countries against which the Spanish economy recorded the largest surpluses were France (6.345 billion euros), Portugal (5.493 billion euros) and the United Kingdom (4.678 billion euros).
By autonomous communities, those with the highest growth in exports were the Canary Islands (23.1%), Castilla y León (13.5%) and Castilla-La Mancha (8.1%).
The number of regular exporters - those that have exported more than 1,000 euros in the reference year and in each of the three immediately preceding years - rose 0.2% in the year to April 2025 to 40,901 exporters. This figure exceeds the figure recorded in the same period in 2024, which was 40,828 exporters.
Non official translation
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