Imports grew by 12.4% to 99.94 billion euros. As a result, the trade deficit for the first four months of the year stood at 8.40 billion euros, 50.5% higher than the figure recorded for the same period in 2016. Spanish exports performed better than both the Eurozone and the European Union.
The coverage rate - exports over imports - stood at 91.6% (versus 93.7% in January-April of 2016).
In volume terms exports were up by 9%, since prices measured by Unit Value Indices (UVIs) grew by 0.8%, and imports grew by 4.8% due to prices rising by 7.2%.
The non-energy balance posted a deficit of 20 million euros (versus a cumulative deficit of 189.8 million euros to April 2016) and the energy deficit increased by 55.4% to 8.38 billion euros (5.39 billion euros in 2016).
The growth of Spanish exports between January and April is stronger than that of our neighbouring countries, with the exception of the UK, where exports grew by 17.4% due to the effect of the depreciation of the pound. In the Eurozone and in the European Union exports grew by 7.2%. Export growth was also more moderate in Italy (6.6%), Germany (5.5%) and France (2.3%), and in the USA (6.7%), China (4.2%) and Japan (8.2%).
Economic sectors
The most important sectors posted export growth. Capital goods (which account for 19.4% of the total) increased by 7.2% and food, drink and tobacco (17.2% of the total) grew by 10.8%. The automotive sector (17.1% of the total) shrank by 0.7% due to the drop in April of new vehicle registrations in the main markets of the EU, attributable to a large extent to Easter falling in April.
With regard to imports, the consolidation of the recovery of the Spanish economy is driving growth in most sectors. Imports of capital goods (20.9% of the total) were up by 10.7% year-on-year; chemical product imports (15% of the total) grew by 2.7%; and energy product imports (14.5% of the total) increased by 64.2%. Conversely, automotive sector imports (13.2% of the total) shrank by 0.4%, in line with the slight drop in exports in the sector.
Geographic areas
Exports to the European Union (66.6% of the total) grew by 8.8% in the first four months of the year. Sales to the Eurozone (52.2% of the total) were up by 9.5% and sales to the rest of the European Union (14.4% of the total) grew by 6.2%.
The economic recovery experienced by emerging countries caused exports to third countries (33.4% of the total) to increase by 12% year-on-year, with generalised export growth to all areas: Asia excluding Middle East (16.8%), North America (13.5%), Latin America (12%), Oceania (10.4%), Africa (7.7%), and Middle East (1.4%).
By countries, we would highlight increased sales to markets with great potential such as China (25.4%), Canada (21.1%), Mexico (20.8%), Morocco (17.7%) and USA (12.5%). Meanwhile sales to Algeria (-11.1%), Chile (-6.4%) and Saudi Arabia (-5.5%) all fell.
The autonomous regions posting the strongest export growth were the Balearics (134.6%), the Canary Islands (51.4%) and Murcia. The only regions where exports declined were Castile and Leon (-3.9%) and Valencia (-0.8%).
Figures for April
In April, the exports shrank 2% compared to the same month 2016, to 21.80 billion euros. This figure includes a strong seasonal effect due to the fact that in 2017, unlike 2016, Easter fell in April. Imports increased by 0.5% on year-on-year terms to 23 billion euros. Consequently, the month posted a deficit of 1.20 billion euros, 88.1% more than in April 2016.
The non-energy balance posted a surplus of 391.3 million euros (versus a surplus of 797.6 million in April 2016) and the energy deficit grew by 10.8%.
The drop in Spanish exports in April is slightly more accentuated than that of the Eurozone (-1.4%) and the European Union (-1.5%), but exports shrank to a greater extent in France (-3.8%), Germany (-2.9%) and Italy (-2.8%). Meanwhile the UK (6%), USA (4.3%), China (4.2%) and Japan (7.5%) all recorded export growth.
Economic sectors
In April, the main contributions to export growth were made by energy products (a contribution of 4.1 points), raw materials (0.4 points), and food, drink and tobacco (0.2 points). Conversely, the sectors with a negative contribution were the automotive (-4.6 points), chemical products (-0.6 points), and non-chemical semi-manufactured goods (-0.5 points) sectors.
Geographic areas
In April 2017, exports to the European Union accounted for 65.3% of the total and shrank by 3.4%. Exports to the Eurozone fell by 2.1% while those to the rest of the EU declined by 8.2%. Outside the EU sales to Mexico (59.7%), Morocco (17.5%) and Portugal (6.2%) all posted strong growth, while sales to Australia (19.8%), Saudi Arabia (16.4%) and Brazil (12.5%) all decreased.
The full report can be consulted on this website: www.mineco.es
Pool Moncloa