In the first six months of 2014, Spanish exports grew by 0.5% year-on-year to 119.27 billion euros, which is an all-time high for the period in the series of comparable data (since 1971). In real terms, growth was higher - at 0.9% - since export prices measured by Unit Value Indices (UVIs) fell by 0.4%.
Spanish export trends in the first six months of the year remain better than those of the country's main trading partners. In this regard, Spanish accumulated exports outperformed those of France (-1.8%) and the United Kingdom (-14.7%), although German exports were better (2.4%). Outside the EU, US exports grew by 2.9% while those of Japan grew by 3.2% in the first six months of 2014.
When analysing the second quarter of the year (April-June) in comparison with the previous quarter (January-March), exports grew by 4.2% quarter-on-quarter. Exports thus regained strength between April and June following a first quarter with weaker exports. In terms of volume, and disregarding the effect of prices, goods exports increased by 4.5% quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter of the year.
Meanwhile, imports amounted to 131.15 billion euros, up 5.3% on the same period of 2013. In real terms, imports grew by 8.1% since prices measured by UVIs fell by 2.6%. The upturn in domestic demand due to the economic recovery is a major factor in the increased import results.
In terms of a quarter-on-quarter comparison, imports grew by 2.1% in the second quarter of the year when compared with the first. In terms of volume, imports increased by 1% quarter-on-quarter.
In the first six months of 2014, the trade deficit amounted to 11.88 billion euros (a deficit of 5.82 billion euros in January-June 2013). The non-energy surplus posted a figure of 8.42 billion euros while the energy deficit fell by 3.5% to 20.3 billion euros. The coverage rate stood at 90.9%, 4.4 points lower than for the same period last year (95.3%).
Geographic areas
In the first six months of 2014, there was a deceleration in demand from non-EU countries due to the weakness of certain emerging economies and the revaluation of the Euro in this period, which caused Spanish exports to become more expensive outside the Eurozone. Hence, exports to non-EU countries fell by 3.1% year-on-year and accounted for 36.4% of the total. However, the period saw notable growth in exports to South Korea (85.5% year-on-year), Japan (26.5%) and Mexico (12%), together with a marked growth in exports to the United States (12.3%).
Exports to the more traditional markets grew in the six-month period overall; to the European Union by 2.6% (4.7% in 2013), to the Eurozone by 3% (3.1% in 2013) and to the rest of the European Union by 1% (10.6% in 2013). These increases were reflected in the percentage of intra-EU exports, which stood at 63.6% of the total in the first six months of 2014, versus 62.3% last year.
In terms of the contribution to the rate of change in total exports, the main destinations for Spanish exports at a global level were Portugal (accounting for 0.6 percentage points of the increase registered by total exports in January-June 2014, due to higher sales of motor vehicles and motorcycles, and automotive components), Germany (0.6 points, related to the sub-sectors of motor vehicles and motorcycles, and road haulage equipment), the United States (0.5 points, mainly due to exports of motor vehicles and motorcycles, and oil and oil derivatives) and the Netherlands (0.4 points due to increased sales of oil and oil derivatives, and motor vehicles and motorcycles).
The autonomous region with the largest export growth in the first six months of the year was the Region of Valencia, which contributed a 0.7 point year-on-year increase to total exports; its exports accounted for 10.7% of the total and grew by 7.3%. In second place was the Basque Country, which contributed 0.5 points; its exports accounted for 9.2% of the total with growth of 5.4%. Catalonia also contributed 0.5 points (25% of the total, with growth of 1.8%). Castile and León made a contribution of 0.4 points (5.5% of the total, and export growth of 8%), while Navarre made a contribution of 0.3 points (3.4% of the total, with export growth of 9.8%).
Economic sectors
The most important sectors in Spain's export pattern so far in 2014 were: food, drink and tobacco, exports of which rose by 5.7% in the period and accounted for 15.8% of the total; the automotive sector, where exports were up by 5.5% and accounted for 15.2% of the total; and manufactured consumer goods, with sales abroad up by 4.3%, representing 8.7% of the total.
Thus, in terms of contribution to export growth, the food, drink and tobacco sector contributed with 0.9 percentage points, the automotive sector with 0.8 points, and the manufactured consumer goods sector with 0.4 points. The most dynamic sub-sectors with the largest contribution to export growth were motor vehicles and motorcycles (0.6 points, mainly due to increased sales to the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and Italy), other foods (0.6 points, mainly due to increased sales to Italy and, to a lesser extent, the United States, France and Portugal), gas (0.5 points, mainly from sales to Argentina, Japan, South Korea and India) and road haulage equipment (0.5 points, mainly to the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Belgium).
With regard to imports, the 11.2% growth in the purchase of capital goods should be noted, in reflection of the budding recovery in economic activity and investment in fixed capital. Specifically, imports of industrial machinery (13.7%) and transport equipment (12.5%) increased. In turn, there was a considerable increase in imports by the automotive sector in the first six months of 2014 (up by 23.6%).
Therefore, in terms of contribution to import growth, the standout sector was the automotive sector, with a contribution of 2.4 points, broken down between motor vehicles and motorcycles (1.3 points) and automotive components (1.1 points). The contribution of the capital goods sector was also noteworthy (1.9 points), in particular its sub-sectors of general use machinery and electrical appliances (each contributing 0.4 points). Other sub-sectors worth noting are clothing (with a contribution of 0.6 points) and medicines (0.5 points).
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