Spain's foreign trade sector showed renewed dynamism in July, following a 3.5% year-on-year increase in exports, reaching €34.419 billion - a record high for the month of July. This is the third consecutive month of increase, as shown by the trade data declared by Customs and collected in the Monthly Foreign Trade Report of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business, produced by the Secretary of State for Trade.

In terms of international comparison, Spanish exports of goods in July showed a stronger performance than those of the eurozone (1.1%) and the European Union-27 (1.5%). Among the major EU economies, exports from Germany (1.3%), France (3.1%) and Italy (7.3%) also grew. Outside the European Union, exports from the United Kingdom increased by 19.8% year-on-year, those from the United States by 3.7% year-on-year, those from China by 8% year-on-year, while those from Japan decreased by -2.6% year-on-year.

Imports, for their part, reached €38.428 billion, also a record high for the month of July, and increased by 5.3%.

By sector, the largest surpluses were recorded in food, beverages and tobacco (1.492 billion euros), other goods (454.8 million), chemicals (441.2 million), non-chemical semi-manufactured products (411.8 million) and the automotive sector (386.7 million).

The trade surplus with the European Union stood at €2.109 billion, uninterrupted since January 2017. The destination markets with the largest surpluses in July were Portugal (1.671 billion euros) and France (1.323 billion euros). Outside of EU destinations, the surplus with the United Kingdom (1.508 billion) stands out.

Sectors and destination markets

In July, the sectors with the largest positive contributions to the annual export growth rate (3.5%) were: chemicals (3.2 percentage points), food, beverages and tobacco (1.5 points), other goods (0.3 points) and consumer goods (0.2 points). An all-time high for the month was reached for chemicals, capital goods, food, beverages and tobacco, consumer goods and consumer durables.

By destination market, exports to the EU-27 accounted for 61% of the total, an increase of 6.3%. Record figures for the month were achieved in 17 EU destinations, including Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Poland, Czech Republic and Greece.

Exports to non-EU destinations accounted for 39% of the total. Record highs were achieved for the month in markets of relevance for Spain, such as the UK, China, Turkey, India and Chile.

Foreign trade data January to July 2025

In the cumulative year to July 2025, exports of goods reached €231.567 billion, the second highest figure for the period. Imports amounted to €260.692 billion.

The trade deficit stood at 29.122 billion euros, due to the non-energy deficit. The energy deficit fell by 6.3% to 18.96 billion euros. The coverage rate thus stood at 88.8%.

The sectors with the largest surpluses were: food, beverages and tobacco (€12.054 billion), non-chemical semi-manufactured products (€3.998 billion), other goods (€3.596 billion), and the automotive sector (€2.527 million).

The countries against which the Spanish economy recorded the largest surpluses were France (€11.315 billion), Portugal (€10.062 billion euros) and the United Kingdom (€9.125 billion euros).

By autonomous communities, those with the highest growth in exports were the Community of Madrid (15.3%), Extremadura (13.7%) and the Canary Islands (11.8%).

The number of regular exporters - those that have exported more than 1,000 euros in the reference year and in each of the three immediately preceding years - rose 0.1% in the year to July 2025 to 43,308 exporters. They exported goods to the value of €223.339 billion, 96% of the total and 1.6% more than in the same period of the previous year.

Non official translation