{"id":884,"date":"2013-07-25T13:38:24","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T12:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/economics\/?p=884"},"modified":"2015-03-17T11:58:37","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T10:58:37","slug":"spain-nears-trade-equilibrium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/economics\/2013\/07\/25\/spain-nears-trade-equilibrium\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain Nears Trade Equilibrium"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Espa\u00f1a<\/a>
Flickr\/Fer Figheras<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Well, equilibrium is a bit exaggerated. In May, Spain’s trade balance accumulated\u00a0over 12 months<\/strong> – my favorite way of looking at this data for seasonality – registered a deficit of about 20.5 billion\u00a0euros,\u00a0which\u00a0is equal to\u00a0roughly 2 percent of the GDP. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The data improved by slightly more than 2 billion\u00a0euros in April, due to an increase in the non-energy trade surplus of about 1.074\u00a0billion euros, along with\u00a0a reduction in the energy deficit of about 824 million.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Is this behavior sustainable?<\/strong> Theoretically, yes.\u00a0Although fluctuating slightly,\u00a0Spain’s trade balance has been improving continually since May 2008, when it came close to a dizzying 13 percent of GDP. This behavior is typical of economies in recession<\/strong>, and even more so in those that are experiencing a recession as profound and far-reaching as Spain’s.<\/p>\n

Improvement in the trade balance is an inevitable consequence of\u00a0a contraction in consumption, which\u00a0reduces imports. But it also\u00a0proves that Spanish companies have identified how to find customers in foreign markets<\/strong>, which is\u00a0particularly commendable if we consider that the recession has affected\u00a0virtually the entire eurozone. In addition,\u00a0this\u00a0strong\u00a0trend keeps hope alive that Spain’s GDP will start growing once again, albeit timidly, in the final quarter of this year<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, equilibrium is a bit exaggerated. In May, Spain’s trade balance accumulated\u00a0over 12 months – my favorite way of looking at this data for seasonality – registered a deficit of about 20.5 billion\u00a0euros,\u00a0which\u00a0is equal to\u00a0roughly 2 percent of the GDP. The data improved by slightly more than 2 billion\u00a0euros in April, due to an increase […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":883,"featured_media":885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[1181,1292,71780],"class_list":["post-884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crisis","tag-recession","tag-spain","tag-trade-balance","megacategoria-mc-economics"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t