Exports fell by 5.7% in June in Gipuzkoa and chained three consecutive falls

2023-08-17 11:03:43

Gipuzkoan exports, one of the main thermometers of the economy, confirm the slowdown announced by different institutions for the last four-month period of the year and chain three consecutive months with numbers in the red. Specifically, the companies in the territory registered foreign sales in June for a value of 920.8 million, which translates into a decrease of 5.7% compared to the same month in 2022, when they reached 976.6 million, according to the data provided this morning by Eustat. In any case, the fall in our territory is less than that of the Basque Country as a whole, which registered a drop of 10.1%. A reduction in sales that is more accentuated in Bizkaia (-23.9%), while in Álava they rebounded by 5.7%.

In this way, the change in trend that began in April this year is confirmed, when they fell by 14.3% for the first time since 2021. It was the Basque Government itself who predicted in June this year that from 2024 the contribution of the foreign sector would stop subtracting growth to be simply neutral. The weakness of some foreign markets that are essential for our companies may explain this fall, since Germany entered a technical recession in the first half of the year and had zero growth in the second. Another of the reference markets, such as Italy, is also suffering, with falls in GDP between April and June.

With regard to our territory, the increases registered in ‘Vehicle parts for railways or similar’ (112.5% ​​and 27.9 million exported) and in ‘Parts and accessories for machine tools’ (169 .6% and 24.9 million exported). Another important growth due to its weight in the export group is that of the heading ‘Automobile vehicle parts and accessories’ (44.6% and 89.5 million exported). On the other side of the coin we find the decreases in ‘Iron or non-alloy steel profiles’ (-37.2% and 74.3 million); the ‘Taps, valves and similar devices for pipes’ (-22% and 32.2 million), and by the ‘Wires, insulated cables conducting electricity and fiber optic cables’ (-26.7%, 23, 3 millions).

Slowdown also in imports

Imports also fell by 10% in June in Gipuzkoa and four more points in the Basque Country (-14.5%). In this case, it is Bizkaia that registers the worst data (-25.7%) compared to the increase in Álava (19.5%). The drop in imports augurs less production in the coming months.

In the year accumulated, the Basque Country recorded an increase in exports of 3.4% and 0.42% in imports. In any case, some data that is in line with the slowdown in the economy forecast by all organizations and institutions and that has already been noted in the second quarter of this year with an increase in Basque GDP of 1.6%, compared to the 2.3% between January and March or 2.9% in the last quarter of 2022.