Spain: worst drop in exports in five years

MADRID – Spain’s exports dropped 5.2% in August, the worst since October 2009. The reasons behind it are multiple, but the main cause is the problems the European economies, especially France and Germany, have undergone. Sales to emergent nations have also dropped, a contributing factor. While presenting these figures at a press conference last week, the Minister for the Economy, Luis de Guindos, pointed out that in real terms and having discounted the price of exports, the downward drift is only 1%. Nevertheless, the general trend of the Spanish economy is toward negative inflation. German exports fell by 1% in the same period, and the French, 5.7%; in both countries this is the sixth consecutive downturn. Exports from the UK were also down, which accumulated a 20% descent in eight consecutive months. Bad news, too, from outside the EU, where exports dropped by 7.1%, particularly in emergent Latin American nations such as Venezuela (-73.5%), Brazil (-22.3%) and Mexico (-16.5%). (Source: El Economista)