Spain recorded a trade deficit of €3.42 billion in February 2025, widening from €2.35 billion in the same month of the previous year. Export growth remained subdued, rising only 0.4% year-on-year to €32 billion.
Spain trade gap widens as imports surge
Declines in major categories such as capital goods (-0.4%), automotive products (-16.6%), and energy products (-13.3%) offset gains in chemical products (up 9.8%), raw materials (up 19.2%), and food, beverages, and tobacco (up 5.1%). In terms of destinations, Spanish exports grew to the United Kingdom (2.3%), Latin America (9.9%), and China (a strong 37.2%), but fell to the European Union overall (-3.3%), with notable drops in shipments to France (-10.4%) and Germany (-11.9%), as well as to the United States (-1.6%).
Imports climb 3.5% year-on-year
On the other hand, imports climbed 3.5% year-on-year to €35.4 billion, driven by higher demand for chemical products (10.6%), food, beverages, and tobacco (7.6%), raw materials (9.5%), durable consumer goods (8.3%), consumer manufactured goods (5.5%), and non-chemical semi-manufactured goods (6.4%). Import growth was mainly fueled by purchases from China (up 23.2%), Latin America (up 26.5%), and the United States (up 2.7%), while imports from the European Union declined slightly (-3.2%).
The data highlight persistent imbalances in Spain’s trade dynamics, with external demand facing headwinds from key European markets, while import pressures continued to build, particularly from non-EU countries. These trends suggest that external trade could remain a drag on Spain’s economic performance in the early part of 2025, amid shifting global demand patterns and ongoing weakness in the European economy.
