Press Release 28/03/2018

FOREIGN TRADE UNIT VALUE INDICES - IVU. IV/2017

Export prices increased by 2.2% in the fourth quarter of 2017

Annual average prices for exports were up by 3.2% and import prices by 8.3% in 2017

Export prices rose by 2.2% in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared with the previous quarter, according to Eustat data. For imports this variation was 2.9%.

If we compare energy products and non-energy products, energy export prices rose by 3.4% compared with the third quarter of 2017, whilst non-energy export prices were up 2.2%.

In the case of imports, energy products registered the greatest increase in prices, 7.2%, compared with the third quarter, whilst prices of non-energy products also increased, but by 1.7%

According to the classification by economic destination of goods, prices of both Capital Goods and Intermediate Goods increased, by 4.6% and 2.5%, respectively. However, prices of Consumer Goods fell by 0.5%, all compared with the previous quarter and for exports. For imports, on the other hand, prices of Consumer Goods and Intermediate Goods increased, by 3.0% and 3.3% respectively. Capital Goods registered a fall of 0.8%.

If we take into account the geographical areas receiving the exports, prices compared with the third quarter of 2017 were up in all areas except the Rest of the World (-0.6%) and increased in the EU-28 (1.7%), the Eurozone (2.8%) and the OECD (2.9%).

For imports, compared to the third quarter there were prices increases in all geographical areas, above all the Rest of the World (8.8%).

Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, export prices were up 4.5%, and import prices rose by 6.4%.

Energy exports posted a rise of 17.0%, while non-energy exports fell by 3.5%, compared with the fourth quarter of 2016. In the case of imports, there was an increase of 13.4% in the price index of energy products, with non-energy products also rising by 4.6%.

By economic destination, the prices of Consumer Goods posted a decrease in prices of 2.6% year-on-year, whilst the prices of Capital Goods and Intermediate Goods rose by 4.9% and 6.8%, respectively. As for imports, the prices of Consumer Goods grew by 6.2% in year-on-year terms, with Intermediate Goods also increasing by 7.4%, whilst Capital Goods fell by 4.0%.

Prices of both exports and imports have registered an increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year in all the geographical areas analysed. For exports, the greatest increase was in the Euro Zone (5.2%) and for imports it was in the Rest of the World (13.6%).

ANNUAL BALANCE 2017

In 2017, export prices were up by 3.2% and import prices by 8.3% compared with the previous year.

In 2017, the prices of energy products rose significantly once again, both in terms of exports (15.5%) and imports (22.4%). Non-energy products also registered increases, with exports rising by 2.2% and imports by 5.0%.

If we take into account the classification of goods by economic destination, we can see that among both exports and imports the highest growth was in the prices of Intermediate Goods, with increases of 4.7% and 9.7%, respectively.

For exports, the geographical area that registered the highest increase in prices was the Euro Zone (3.9%), although they all exceeded 3%. For imports, the area with by far the highest growth is the Rest of the World (20.9%), determined by energy imports.

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