Exports from the A.C. of the Basque Country reported a nominal rise of 13.6% in the first quarter of 2007, according to EUSTAT data. Sales abroad totalled 4,967.0 million euros over the last three months of 2007, compared to 4,373.6 million in the fourth quarter of the previous year.

Total imports, which came to 5,146.7 million euros, recorded inter-annual growth of 13.6%, even though non-energy product imports grew at a slightly lower rate, and stood at 12.2%.

Evolution of the foreign trade of the A.C. of the Basque Country. Fourth quarter 2006-2007. Thousands of euros.

Source: Eustat

The trade balance (exports minus imports) showed negative evolution, and fell from a deficit of 155,5 million euros to the 179.7 million euros of this year, with a coverage rate of exports over imports of 96.5%

However, the non-energy trade balance came to a surplus of 1,082.4 million euros in the fourth quarter of 2007, up 18% on the same period of the previous year, with the coverage rate increasing from 128.9% in the fourth quarter of 2006 to 130.4% in the same quarter of 2007.

Exports whose destination was the European Union were up by 6.2% and special mention should be made of the growth in exports to Germany (10.1%) and the United Kingdom (17.6%) and, to a lesser extent, Belgium (8.5%) and Portugal (6.0%). Exports to Poland (53.7%), the Netherlands (32.7%) and the Czech Republic (24.8%) grew at a good rate, even though their volume was lower. Exports to Italy, Mexico and the United States of America fell by 11.0%, 16.0% and 3.4%, respectively.

Imports coming from the European Union also experienced a discernable increase of 24.3%, with rises for imports coming from Germany (91.5%), the Netherlands (50.5%) and Italy (24.0%).

The trade balance with the European Union weakened and fell from 683.2 million in the last quarter of 2006 to 330.0 million one year later. Therefore, the coverage rate fell 18 percentage points.

As far as the performance by customs duty groups was concerned, the three most important export sectors evolved as follows in the fourth quarter 2007 compared to the same period of the previous year: Exports of transport material grew by 24.0%, Electrical Material by 19.5% and Metals and Manufactured were up by 10.9%. The three accounted for 73.4% of the exports.

Special mention should be made of the increases among non-energy imports in: Transport Material (112.2%), Paper and Manufactured (12.,1%) and Plastics and Rubber (11.1%); and the following decreases: Electrical Material (-4.1%) and Metals and Manufactured (-2.2%).

Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa registered significant increases in its exports in this fourth quarter of 2007, with interannual rates of 25.3% and 17.3%, respectively. However, exports from Álava fell by 5.8%. On the other hand, the greatest increase in imports was in Álava (38.4%), followed by Gipuzkoa (10.5%) and Bizkaia (7.5%).

Annual Balance for 2007

Exports from the A.C. of the Basque Country totalled 18,834.3 million euros in 2007, bettering the 2006 figure by 14.1%. Total imports for the same period grew by 9.4%, even though non-energy products were up by 17.1%. The coverage rate therefore improved four percentage points and it rose from 96.3% in 2006 to 100.4% in 2007. After two years of the Basque Foreign Trade Balance posting a deficit, the trade balance returned to the black in 2007.

Exports grew in the A.C. of the Basque Country at double the rate for Spain as a whole (6.8%) and Basque imports also increased at a faster rate than the Spanish ones (8.0%).

The largest growth in exports in 2007 came from Metals and Manufactured (23.3%), Electrical material (13.1%) and Transport Material (11.9%).

For 2007 as a whole, the largest growth in exports corresponded to Gipuzkoa, with 18.2% annual growth Exports from Bizkaia In turn grew by 15.3%, whereas evolution in Álava was more modest, with a 7.5% annual increase Turning to imports, the greatest increase in imports was in Álava (19.9%), followed by Gipuzkoa (15.5%) and Bizkaia (4.7%).

Foreign trade of the A.C. of the Basque Country. (Trend)

Source: Eustat