The growth in Spanish exports in January-August 2014 contrasts with the declines seen in France (-2%) and the United Kingdom (-15.6%) but is lower than the growth seen in Germany (+2.8%). Outside the European Union, US exports were up by 3.3% while Japan posted growth of 2.8%.
Meanwhile, imports amounted to 173.67 billion euros, up by 5.8% on the same period of 2013 and boosted by increased domestic demand. In real terms, imports grew by 8.3% due to the downward trend in prices measured using UVIs (2.3%).
In the first eight months of 2014, the trade deficit stood at 16.48 billion euros (a deficit of 8.42 billion in January-August 2013). The non-energy surplus stood at 10.38 billion euros while the energy deficit fell by 4.4% to 26.86 billion euros. The coverage rate stood at 90.5%, 4.4 points lower than for the same period last year (94.9%).
Geographic areas
Appreciation of the Euro against the main currencies in the first months of the year and deceleration by the emerging countries have led to exports being re-focused on the Eurozone. Hence, in the first eight months of 2014, Spanish exports to the Eurozone and the European Union grew by 3.9% (+2.8% in 2013) and 3.6% (+4.4% in 2013) respectively. Especially noteworthy is the increase in exports to Germany, (5.9%), Portugal (8.1%) and the Netherlands (10.3%). This has increased the proportion of Spanish exports accounted for by the EU, 63.5% of the total to date this year compared with 61.8% in the same period last year.
Demand from non-EU countries weakened in this period. Specifically, exports to non-EU countries fell by 3.5% year-on-year and accounted for 36.5% of the total. Among others, exports shrank to the BRICS countries and the Middle East. However, the period saw strong growth in exports to South Korea (+115.6% year-on-year), Taiwan (+78.6%), Japan (+17.9%) and the United States (+14.9%).
In terms of contribution to the rate of change in total exports, the main export destinations at a worldwide level were Germany (which accounted for 0.6 percentage points of the increase in total exports in January-August 2014, mainly due to the increased export of motor vehicles and motorcycles), the United States (0.6 points, mainly due to growing exports of oil and oil derivatives and motor vehicles and motorcycles), Portugal (0.6 points, particularly associated with the oil and oil derivatives and other foodstuffs subsectors) and South Korea (0.4 points, mainly due to increased exports of oil and oil derivatives and gas).
The autonomous region with the best export results in the period January-August was the Region of Valencia, which contributed a 0.6 point year-on-year increase to total exports; its exports accounted for 10.4% of the total and grew by 6.4%. In second place was Castile Leon, with 0.4 points; its exports, 5.4% of the total, grew by 8.6%. Next, with a 0.3 point contribution came Catalonia (25.1% of the total with exports up by 1.4%), Navarre (3.4% of the total with exports up by 8.5%), the Region of Murcia (4.3% of the total with exports up by 6.2%) and the Basque Country (9.1% of the total with exports up by 2.8%).
Economic sectors
The most dynamic sectors in terms of exports in the period January-August 2014 were the automotive sector, whose exports grew by 4.8% and accounted for 14.5% of the total, the food, beverage and tobacco sector, whose exports increased by 4.7% in the period and accounted for 15.6% of the total, and the manufactured consumer goods sector, whose exports grew by 6.6% and accounted for 9.1% of the total.
Hence, in terms of contribution to export growth, the automotive sector contributed 0.7 percentage points; as did the food, beverage and tobacco sector; while the manufactured consumer goods sector contributed 0.6 points. By subsector, the standout positive contributions were from motor vehicles and motorcycles (0.6 points, largely due to higher exports to Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and Italy), road haulage equipment (0.6 points, mainly due to increased exports to France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Austria), other foodstuffs (0.5 points, mainly due to rising exports to Italy and, to a lesser extent, the United States, Portugal and France), and gas (0.4 points, with strong exports to Japan, South Korea, and Argentina).
As regards imports, the upturn in industrial activity and the ongoing recovery in consumption are boosting overseas purchases. Hence, imports in the capital goods sector grew by 10.1%. Specifically, imports of industrial machinery (14.2%) and transport equipment (11.1%) have increased; imports in the durable consumer goods sector rose by 13.7%; and imports in the manufactured consumer goods sector rose by 14.7%. Meanwhile, in January-August 2014, the automotive sector significantly stepped up its import activity (a 21.3% increase).
In terms of contribution to import growth, it is worth highlighting the automotive sector, with a contribution of 2.1 points, divided between motor vehicles and motorcycles (1.2 points) and automotive components (0.9 points). The contribution from the capital goods sector was also noteworthy (1.7 points), in particular its subsectors of general use machinery (0.4 points) and electrical appliances (0.3 points). Other standout subsectors were clothing (0.7 points) and medicines (0.4 points).
August 2014
In August, Spanish goods exports fell by 5.1% year-on-year to 16.34 billion euros. In real terms, the downturn was even greater, at 1%, since export prices measured using Unit Value Indices (UVIs) fell by 4.1%.
This month, German exports fell by 1% year-on-year, French exports shrank by 5.7% (the sixth year-on-year decline this year) and UK exports experienced another major drop of 20.5% (eight months of back-to-back declines). Outside the EU, Japan posted its third negative rate so far this year (-1.3%) and the United States maintained its export performance in August with export growth of 4.1%.
In turn, Spanish imports amounted to 19.11 billion euros, 0.5% up on August 2013. The increase is higher in real terms, at 2.2%, since prices measured using UVIs fell by 1.7%.
The trade balance in August 2014 showed a deficit of 2.77 billion euros (a deficit of 1.81 billion euros in August 2013). The coverage rate stood at 85.5%, 5 points less than in August 2013 (90.5%). The non-energy balance showed a surplus of 541.3 million euros (1.83 billion euros in the same month the previous year) while the energy deficit shrank by 9% to 3.31 billion euros (a deficit of 3.64 billion in August 2013).
Geographic areas
In August, exports to both the Eurozone and the EU as a whole fell by 3.8% year-on-year. Specifically, exports fell by 11.2% to Spain's largest customer - France - as did Spanish exports to another two major Spanish partners - Germany (-3.7%) and Italy (-3.1%). However, Spanish exports increased to Portugal (4%) and the United Kingdom (8.2%). In spite of this downturn in EU exports, the proportion thereof from total Spanish exports rose to 62.6%, compared with 61.8% in the same month the previous year.
In terms of exports to non-EU countries (37.4% of the total), these fell by 7.1% in August as a result of influences caused by the shrinking of certain emerging economies. It is worth highlighting Spanish exports to Latin America (-28.8%), specifically Venezuela (-73.5%), Brazil (-22.3%) and Mexico (-16.5%).
Economic sectors
From a sectoral perspective, highly positive results were posted by the energy products and manufactured consumer goods sectors. Specifically, in terms of their contribution to year-on-year export growth, the energy products sector contributed 1.2 points, with its exports accounting for 10.2% of the total and up 14.1%. The second sector that most contributed to export growth was manufactured consumer goods, with 0.9 points; its exports, 11.9% of the total, grew by 8.2%. The other goods sector made a contribution of 0.5 points (5.9% of the total and export growth of 9.8%).
The most dynamic subsectors, those with the greatest contribution to export growth this month, were oil and oil derivatives (1.5 points, led by exports to France, South Korea, Greece and Italy), clothing (0.7 points, mainly due to increased exports to France, Poland, Italy and Portugal) and aircraft (0.5 points, especially to the United Kingdom).
No comments:
Post a Comment