In the first quarter of 2024, Spanish exports of goods reached 93,4 billion euro, being the second highest value in the historical series for this period. For its part, imports reached 101,5 billion euro, the third highest value in the entire series, as shown in the latest Monthly Foreign Trade Report of the Secretary of State for Commerce with data on declared trade from Customs.
Despite the complex international context and after the historic export figure that was reached in the first quarter of 2023, the Spanish foreign sector continues to show great competitiveness and robustness at the beginning of 2024. Eliminating the base effect of the increase in vaccines against COVID-19 and the calendar effect, exports decreased slightly in March by 5.6% year-on-year.
In fact, Spanish exports grew this quarter above the average of the last five years. Comparing with the year before the pandemic (January-March 2019), Spanish exports in the first three months of the year rose by 31.6% and imports by 26.2%.
By areas of activity, the positive contribution of the food and automobile sectors stands out, as they continue to grow. Exports of energy products fell more sharply than those of non-energy products (28.2% year-on-year compared to 7.2%).
By autonomous community, those that recorded the most notable growth in their exports in the first quarter were Extremadura (16.0%), Castilla y León (11.4%) and the Foral Community of Navarra (4.5%).
The number of regular exporters, those who have exported more than 1,000 euro in the reference year and in each of the three immediately preceding ones, grew by 3.7% in the period January-March 2024 to 38,758 exporters. These exported a value of 89,7 billion euro, 96.1% of the total.
Foreign trade data in March 2024
Based on foreign trade data for the month of March, exports reached 31,4 billion euro, the third best figure in the historical series for this month of the year and in line with the average of the last five years. For their part, imports stood at 33,4 billion euro.
The non-energy component of the trade balance showed the new surplus in this case of 444.4 million euro, the highest value in the last 11 months, from 32.7 million euro in February.
In March, a trade surplus of 2,5 billion euro was obtained with the European Union and a surplus of 2,9 billion euro with the euro zone. The trade deficit with non-EU destinations decreased to 4,6 billion euro. The largest surpluses were recorded with France, the United Kingdom and Portugal.
The main export sectors in March 2024 were: food, beverages and tobacco (19.9% of the total), capital goods (19.3% of the total), chemical products (15.6% of the total) and the automobile (14.6% of the total).
Regarding destinations, exports directed to the European Union-27 represented 62.9% of the total, while 37.1% went to non-EU destinations. Exports reached record figures for the month in some important markets, such as Türkiye, Mexico and India.
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