Press Release 29/12/2017

FOREIGN TRADE UNIT VALUE INDICES - IVU. III/2017

Export prices increased by 2.7% in the third quarter of 2017

In the case of imports, prices rose by 2.6%

During the third quarter of 2017, the prices of exports posted a growth of 2.7% compared with the previous quarter, according to Eustat data. Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, there was also an increase in prices of 4.6%. Import prices saw a 2.6% rise compared with the second quarter of 2017, and a rise of 8.7% in year-on-year terms.

Within exports, energy was responsible for total price variation, and not only compared with the previous quarter, but also in year-on-year terms. Thus, prices for energy exports rose by 7.8% compared to the previous quarter, whereas prices for non-energy exports were up by 2.4%. Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, prices for energy exports rose by 24.0% and prices for non-energy exports by 3.2%.

The price index for imports of energy products grew by 3.4% in its year-on-year rate, and that of non-energy products did so by 1.8%. In year-on-year terms, energy products saw price rises of 13.9%, and non-energy products saw prices increase by 8.3%.

According to the classification by economic destinations of goods, , in the case of exports, the prices of Capital Goods rose by 3.5% and the prices of Consumer Goods by 3.3%, whilst the prices of Intermediate Goods decreased by 0.2%, all compared with the previous quarter. In year-on-year terms, Consumer Goods prices also dropped (-0.7%), whereas they grew for Capital Goods (4.4%) and Intermediate Goods (6.4%).

For imports, it can be observed that the prices of Capital Goods were up in quarter-on-quarter terms (0.6%) but not in year-on-year terms (-2.6%), and that the rest of the goods are up in both comparisons.

Taking into account the economic areas, it can be observed that export prices were up in all of them compared to the previous quarter, and the same quarter of the previous year. Leaving the area “Rest of the World” to one side, with growth of 3.2% regarding the second quarter and 6.7% in year-on-year terms, we can see equal growth in year-on-year terms in prices for exports to the European Union 28 and the OECD: 2.5% in the last quarter and 4.1 and 4.2%, respectively, for the same quarter of the previous year.

In the case of imports, and compared to the previous year, prices were up in all areas, especially those originating from the Rest of the World, with a pronounced year-on-year increase of 14.4%; however, compared to the previous quarter, these prices fell slightly (0.6%).

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tel: 945 01 75 62