Catalonia’s high-tech second-term exports up 20% on last year

Catalan high-tech exports increased by 20.5% on last year for the second term of 2019, according to the Catalan statistics institute. 

Around €2.16 billion worth of high-tech products were exported from Catalonia.

Pharmaceutical products have also increased by 21.5%, and exports to the European Union have grown 26.5%.

Low and mid-tech products

All levels of industrial product exports have increased with the exception of mid-high-tech equipment, which has fallen by 2.2%, in large due to a 4% drop in electrical equipment, machinery and vehicles. 

The sales figures of these products have marked a decrease for the fourth consecutive month, and, while sales to the EU have remained stable, sales to the rest of the world have seen a 7.1% drop. 

Low-mid-tech products have also seen an increase, reaching nearly €2.9 billion worth of exports, 13.2% higher than this time last year. This is due to a strong increase in exports to the European Union of 20.6%, which has countered a slight decrease to the rest of the world of 1.7%. 

Plastic materials, metallic products and mineral products are among those to have decreased slightly, all other low-mid-tech product exports have increased by 76.9%.

Low-tech products were measured at €4.7 billion worth of exports, with exports to the EU (4.9%) and the rest of the world (12.3%) both seeing an increase. 

Increase in imports 

Technological product imports have also seen an increase. Most notably, high-tech imports have seen a 16.9% increase compared to this period in 2018. 

Imports from the European Union have seen a significant increase, measured at 31.7% higher than this term last year, while imports to the rest of the world have seen a small 1.7% decrease.