Catalan exports in January, 10.6% less than same month in 2020

Catalonia’s exports fell 10.6% in January from what they were the same month in 2020, before the pandemic hit Europe, down to €5.2 billion. This was a less significant decrease from the average across Spain, where exports saw a 11.4% fall compared to January 2020, down to 22.227 billion euros. 

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, Catalan exports have suffered a downward trend. The decline seen in 2020, caused mainly by the health crisis, has been the sharpest since 2009 when exports fell by 17.9% year-on-year. In 2020, this figure was 10.3%, but having dropped down to 17% in the first half of the financial year.

This comes after 9 consecutive years of seeing rises in exports, peaking in 2019, having seen an increase of 3% on goods sold to other countries at a value of €73 billion.

The January export figures come after a couple of months of positivity in November and December 2020. In November, exports grew by 5.5%, and December saw an even larger rise, by 6.5% up to €5.759 billion. However, the first month of 2021 has marked an end to this positive trend. 

Principle exports

The country’s principal export was chemical products, worth €1.5 billion (-8.1% on the previous year).

Other major exports include capital goods (worth 800.2 million euros, -4.2% on the previous year) and food, drinks and tobacco (worth 8.14.4 million euros, -4.6% on the previous year).

Catalan exports made up 25.6% of Spain’s total exported goods.

Imports

In relation to Catalan imports, data shows that they were at 6,075 million euros, 19.3% less than in January 2020, and representing 27.3% of Spain’s total imports.