Exporters celebrate the foreign trade data, but warn of a global economic slowdown

Madrid, May 18th. (Press Europe) –

The Spanish Exporters and Investors Club celebrated the dynamism maintained by the Spanish foreign sector, which recorded an annual increase of 14.6% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, to reach 102,683.9 million euros.

However, the organization views with concern the slowdown in the global economy, which may end up affecting Spain’s export balance in the remainder of the year. “This was already noticed in the first quarter, when our exports increased in volume by only 3.5%,” they warned in a statement.

The Exporters Club highlights positive data from foreign trade figures issued today, Thursday, to reduce the trade deficit, which amounted to 6,578.3 million euros, when it rose a year ago to 15,416.5 million. Similarly, the non-energy balance is estimated to have shown a surplus of €1,639.3m in the first quarter, compared to a deficit of €4,364.1m in the same period of 2022.

For the Exporters Club, a sample of the dynamism of Spanish exports, and the efforts of companies to increase their sales in foreign markets, is the greater intensity of their growth compared to the Eurozone (7.7%) and the EU-27 (8.2%). Similarly, Spanish exports are growing faster than those in Germany (7.8%), France (9.5%) and Italy (9.8%). It also grew higher than those in the UK (13.9% yoy), the US (6.5%), China (8.4%) and Japan (4.8%).

Despite the good data collected by the foreign sector in the first quarter of 2023, the Exporters Club considers that it is still too early to draw important conclusions about how exports will develop in the remainder of the year.

In this regard, the organization has expressed caution due to the fact that the GDP of many countries is either decreasing or not growing, there is a state of uncertainty and the increase in interest rates leads to a decrease in economic activity in the rest of the world.

They advocate business support measures

For this reason, the Exporters Club insisted on the need to adopt business support measures that provide stability and certainty, reduce the tax burden on companies and encourage investment.

Likewise, the organization recommended increasing the Spanish export base by making it easier for companies to scale up. They warned that “the fact that over the past 25 years, 67% of exports were concentrated in just 1,000 companies, could pose a significant risk to our economy.”