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Spain's trade deficit falls by 22.4 pct in 2016

Xinhua, February 21, 2017 Adjust font size:

Spain's trade deficit fell by 22.4 percent in 2016 to 18.75 billion euros (19.90 billion U.S. dollars), compared with a year earlier, according to data released on Monday by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

The ministry reported that exports hit a record high reaching 254.53 billion euros, which meant a 1.7 percent rise year-on-year, while imports fell by 0.4 percent to 273.28 billion euros.

Regarding exports, the number of companies that exported products reached 148,794 in 2016, meaning a 1 percent increase, compared with a year earlier.

Spain especially exported capital goods (which accounted for 22 percent of the total), items related to the automobile industry and consumer goods.

Exports shipped to other EU countries represented 66.3 percent of the total, increasing by 4.1 percent in 2016 year-on-year, and those shipped to the eurozone countries accounted for 51.8 percent of the total, rising by 4.4 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, exports to third countries fell by 2.6 percent in 2016 year-on-year and represented 33.7 percent of the total.

Spain's State Secretary for Trade, Marisa Poncela, said the data was positive in a context of economic recovery, highlighting that it shows a better performance of the economy and improvement of the country's competitiveness. (1 euro = 1.06 U.S. dollars) Endit