Press Release 27/09/2019

FOREIGN TRADE UNIT VALUE INDICES - IVU. II/2019

Export prices decreased by 0.5% in the second quarter of 2019 compared with the previous quarter

Prices of imports were up by 2.2%

During the second quarter of 2019 the prices of exports posted a decrease of 0.5% compared to the first quarter of 2019, according to Eustat data. In comparison with the same quarter of the previous year, the increase is 2.1%.

Import prices rose by 2.2% compared with the previous quarter, and by 4.0% compared with the second quarter of 2018.

Within exports, it was the prices of energy products that increased the most, both in relation to the previous quarter and in year-on-year terms. Energy export prices rose by 3.8% compared with the first quarter of 2019, whilst non-energy export prices were down by 0.9%. Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, prices for energy exports rose by 6.4% and non-energy exports by 1.7%.

The price index for imports of energy products grew by 11.2% in its year-on-year rate, and that of non-energy products fell by 0.7%. In year-on-year terms, energy products saw price rises of 10.9%, and non-energy products saw prices increase by 1.7%.

Following the classification of exports by economic destination and compared to the previous quarter, we see that the prices of all goods types experienced a moderate decrease, especially those of Consumer Goods (-0.9%). In year-on-year terms, in contrast, the opposite situation occurred, prices of all goods types increased, and Intermediate Goods saw the sharpest rise (2.4%).

Analysing imports, it can be observed that the prices of Consumer Goods fell in both quarter-on-quarter (-2.5%) and year-on-year (-3.1%) terms. However, the opposite occurred in the case of Intermediate Goods, with price rises of 2.8% and 4.4%, respectively. The prices of Capital Goods saw positive and negative variations, negative in the quarter-on-quarter comparison (-0.5%), but positive with respect to the previous year (6.8%).

If the geographic areas to which exports are sent are taken into account, it can be seen that prices in relation to the first quarter of 2019 fell in all areas: Euro Zone (-0.7%), EU-28 (-0.6%), OECD (-0.4%) and the Rest of the World (-1.3%). Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, there were increases in prices for almost all the economic areas, above all the Rest of the World (6.2%). In the Eurozone, however, there was a drop of 0.2%.

For imports, there were year-on-year increases in all areas, in particular the Rest of the World (4.9%) and the quarter-on-quarter comparison showed diverse performance, with once again a clear increase for the Rest of the World (5.2%).

For further information:

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