February figures reflected the good performance of domestic exports which outperformed the European Union (2.3%) and the Eurozone (2.6%). With regard to Spain's main trade partners, exports to Germany grew by 3.9%, to Italy by 3.7%, to France by 3.6% and to Japan by 2.5%. Conversely, exports to the United Kingdom fell by 13.2% and to the United States by 4.3%.
Meanwhile, Spanish imports totalled 21.9 billion euros, 4.5% more than in February 2014. The increase is greater in real terms, by 6.8%, since prices measured by UVIs fell by 2.1%.
The trade balance posted a deficit of 2.04 billion euros (versus a deficit of 1.62 billion euros in February 2014). The coverage rate stood at 90.7%, 1.6 points less than at February 2014 (92.3%). The non-energy balance posted a surplus of 380.9 million euros (1.87 billion euros in the same month of the previous year) and the energy deficit was reduced by 30.7%, due to lower energy prices.
In February exports to the European Union and the Eurozone grew at year-on-year rates of 5.1% and of the 7.1%, respectively, representing 65.7% and 51.8% of the total (versus 64.3% and 49.7% posted in the same month of the previous year). The gradual recovery of the European economy is behind the strong growth of sales to our main EU customers this month. Specifically, sales to France (16.4% of the total) grew by 7.8%; sales to Germany (11.2% of the total) rose by 3.0%, while sales to Portugal, Netherlands and Ireland increased by 6.4%, 7.1% and 102.4%, respectively.
Exports to non-EU countries fell by 1.5% in February. However, there was significant growth in sales to a number of countries: Australia (274.9%), South Korea (56.1%), Canada (53.7%), Saudi Arabia (24.3%) and India (23.4%).
Economic sectors
The main contributions to export growth in February came from the automotive sector, which was responsible for 2.5 percentage points of the total (sales abroad accounted for 17.7% and were up by 16.2%). The food, beverage and tobacco sector contributed 0.8 percentage points (its exports, accounting for 16.4% of the total, grew by 4.8%). Meanwhile, the manufactured consumer goods sector contributed 0.7 points (its exports, 9.9% of the total, grew by 7.0%) and the chemical products sector was responsible for 0.5 points (14.3% of the total, up by 3.5%).
January-February 2015
Looking at the first two months of the year in cumulative terms, Spanish exports of goods remain stable (0.0%), totalling 37.75 billion euros. The true variation was slightly lower, down by 0.7%, since export prices measured by Unit Value Indices (UVIs) grew by 0.7%.
In this period, imports posted a growth of 0.4% to 42.39 billion euros. In real terms the increase was greater (2.9%), due to export prices measured by Unit Value Indices (UVIs) falling by 2.4%.
According to these figures, the trade deficit totalled 4.63 billion euros, 4.3% more than in the same period last year (a deficit of 4,440.5 million euros in January-February 2014, provisional figures). However, falling energy prices caused the energy deficit to shrink significantly (-37.1% year-on-year, to 4.44 billion euros). The coverage rate stood at 89.1%, 0.4 lower than in the same period of the previous year (89.5%, provisional figures).
Geographic areas
The slowdown seen in several of the most important emerging economies, particularly Latin America, together with the growing economic strength of the EU and the Eurozone, are increasing the percentage of our exports to EU countries. The percentage of exports to the EU stood at 66.3% of the total, higher than the 64.6% posted in January-February 2014. This increase in the share of exports is mainly attributable to the Eurozone (52.0% in the first two months of 2015, versus 50.5% in the same period 2014), and to a lesser extent due to the rest of the EU (14.3% in January-February 2015 versus 14.0% in January-February 2014). Sales to the EU and to the Eurozone grew by 2.7% and 2.9% respectively (6.1% and 5.6% in the same period 2014). In particular, sales to our main trade partners grew considerably, with the exception of Portugal (-1.3%). Exports to Germany increased by 5.0%, to Italy by 6.1%, to France by 1.9%, and to the UK by 2.4%.
Conversely, demand from non-EU countries fell in the first two months of 2015; exports to third countries declined by 5.0% year-on-year (+0.4% in 2014). Sales to these destinations accounted for 33.7% of the total (35.4% in 2014). With regard to exports to non-EU countries results were divergent, since sales to Latin America fell by 8.9% (Argentina -17.6%, Brazil -10.4% and Mexico -8.6%), while sales to North America (12.8%), the Middle East (4.1%) and Oceania (120.0%) were up. Exports were up significantly to Australia (140.2%), Canada (49.7%), Indonesia (47.7%), Egypt (29.9%), South Korea (28.7%) and Saudi Arabia (21.7%).
In terms of contribution to the change rate for total exports, the most important destinations worldwide were Australia (accounting for 0.7 percentage points of the increase posted for total exports in January-February 2015, almost entirely due to higher sales of aircraft and, to a lesser extent, of motor vehicles and motorcycles), Germany (0.5 points, largely due to the increase in exports of motor vehicles and motorcycles), Italy (0.4 points, due to the growth of sales of motor vehicles and motorcycles, iron and steel, fruit, vegetables and legumes, and oil and oil derivatives), and the United States (0.4 points, resulting from greater exports of motor vehicles and motorcycles and, to a lesser extent, of iron and steel, special machinery and vessels).
Economic sectors
From a sectoral point of view, in this period there has been a very positive performance of the automotive sector, whose sales abroad are up by 18.7%, accounting for 17.5% of the total. The manufactured consumer goods sector also performed well, with exports growing by 5.3% (accounting for 9.8% of the total), the food, beverage and tobacco sector, with a growth of 2.7% (accounting for 16.9% of the total), and the chemical products sector, whose exports were up by 1.2% (accounting for 14.7% of the total).
Thus, in terms of contribution to the export change rate, the automotive sector contributed 2.8 percentage points, the manufactured consumer goods 0.5 points, while the food, beverage and tobacco sector contributed 0.4 points. By sub-sectors, the main positive contributions came from motor vehicles and motorcycles (2.8 points, mainly due to higher sales to the UK, Germany, France and the USA), fruits, vegetables and pulses (0.5 points, to France, Germany, Italy and the UK), clothing (0.4 points, to Italy, Germany, Poland and Netherlands) and other capital goods (0.3 points, to China, Denmark, South Korea and France).
With regard to imports, the improvement in industrial activity and the strengthening of consumption are driving purchases from abroad. Thus, imports of capital goods grew by 12.1%, more specifically, transport equipment (13.8%), and other capital goods (12.8%), while imports of consumer durables increased by 17.8%, and manufactured consumer goods rose by 11.4%. Imports from the automotive sector maintained their growth rate in January-February 2015 (20.8%).
In terms of contribution to the growth of imports, the automotive sector is the largest contributor, with a contribution of 2.4 points, divided between motor vehicles and motorcycles (1.4 points) and automotive components (1.0 points). Next comes the capital goods sector (2.1 points), in particular, its sub-sectors electrical appliances (0.5 points), general use machinery (a contribution of 0.4 points), and road haulage equipment (also contributing 0.4 points), and the manufactured consumer goods sector (1.3 points).
The autonomous regions that contributed most to the year-on-year export change rate in January-February were Valencia, which contributed 1.4 points (11.9% of the total and a 12.8% growth). In second place was Aragon, with 0.7 points (4.4% of the total, up by 18.9%). Next, with a contribution of 0.5 points comes Catalonia (25.8% of the total, up by 1.9%) and then Galicia, with a contribution of 0.2 points (7.2% of the total, a 3.1% growth).
Exports from our main partners performed disparately in the first two months of the year. On the one hand there was growth in German exports (1.7% year-on-year), French exports (1.0%), and Japanese exports (9.4%), while exports from the Eurozone as a whole posted zero growth (0.0%). Conversely, exports from both the EU as a whole and Italy shrank by 0.1%, those from the United States fell by 4.6%, and those from the UK diminished by 13.1%.
Ministerio