Economy
Sections
Highlight
Sections
Highlight
Cristina Vallejo
Malaga
Monday, 26 August 2024, 16:54
Opciones para compartir
Never before has Malaga province sold so much overseas. This is according to the foreign trade report produced by Spain's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise.
Between January and June Malaga exported goods abroad to the value of just over 1.65 billion euros, which represents an increase of 7% compared to the figures for the first half of 2023. Last year, which was also a record year, Malaga sold goods worth just over 1.54 billion euros to other countries between January and June. As for 2022, sales recorded for the same period amounted to 1.389 billion euros. Five years ago in 2019, the year before the pandemic, exports from Malaga in six months were barely close to 1.07 billion euros. This means that, in just five years, Malaga has managed to improve its foreign sales by no less than 54%.
This progress to date suggests that the year as a whole will beat last year's record-breaking figures, when Malaga exported products worth more than 3.2 billion euros, more than three times as much as in 2008, when the volume of sales was limited to one billion euros. This is the figure that exports had been hovering around since 2004. Ten years earlier, in the mid-nineties of the last century, sales of goods abroad from Malaga barely amounted to 400 million euros.
These figures reflect the growing externalisation of Malaga's economy, its openness to international markets and its diversification towards agro-industry and capital goods. For this reason it is food, drink and tobacco that make up the primary group in terms of importance in overseas sales, with a total of 904 million euros accumulated in the first half of 2024, which represents an increase of almost 27% compared to a year ago. The second most important group is capital goods, with exports worth nearly 200 million euros, which in this case represents a reduction of nearly 20% compared to the same dates in 2023. Therefore, the growth in exports recorded in the current financial year is basically founded on the agro-industry.
The structure of exports five years ago in 2019 was similar to today, with food, beverages and tobacco in first place, with 574.4 million euros in exports - around half the current figure - and the manufacture of consumer goods in second place with 133 million.
Across the region of Andalucía as a whole, the value of exports in the first half of the year exceeded 21.3 billion euros, accounting for almost 11% of Spain's total exports and growing by 6.5% year-on-year. The region, therefore, is performing better than the country as total sales at national level, although they exceeded 195 billion euros, fell by 2.5% year-on-year. The key to Andalucía's performance is that the three main drivers of its exports are very dynamic. Therefore, sales of food, drink and tobacco amounted to almost 8.9 billion euros, 15% more than in the first half of 2023. Exports of energy products amounted to 3.37 billion euros, an increase of 9.1%, and capital goods sold abroad exceeded 3.3 billion euros, a growth of more than 20%.
Just last week, Andalucía's regional minister of Economy, Finance and European Funds, Carolina España, gave an assessment of Andalucía's foreign trade figures and pointed out how the region is already the third largest exporter in Spain, only behind Catalonia and Madrid, as it has been able to overtake Valencia. "In some aspects we are even second, because we have overtaken Madrid," she said.
The progress made in export sales by the region as a whole in recent years has been very significant, but not as spectacular as that of Malaga province. Therefore the 21.33 billion euros in the first half of 2024 compared to the 17.12 billion euros for the same period in 2019 is significant, representing an increase of 24%. In 2023 as a whole, sales abroad totalled 38.54 billion euros, an increase of 130% compared to the 16.832 billion euros in 2008. Yes, they have more than doubled in that period, which is great until compared to Malaga's figures, which have more than tripled in the same period. In the early 2000s, Andalucía's sales barely exceeded 10 billion euros and in the mid-1990s they amounted to just six billion. In thirty years, Andalusian exports have multiplied by more than six times. Malaga's exports have increased eightfold.
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Reporta un error en esta noticia
Necesitas ser suscriptor para poder votar.