Exports down 5.7%, imports up 2.4% in April

Exports fell by 5.7% and imports rose by 2.4% in April, year-on-year, according to the INE’s flash estimate of international trade in goods.

With this development, the trade deficit in goods worsened by €614 million compared to the same month in 2024, reaching €3.018 billion in April 2025.

According to INE, fuels and lubricants accounted for a large part of the decline in exports in April, with a “significant decrease in transactions in this product category”.

Exports of fuels and lubricants fell by 32.9%, affected by a base effect and by the decrease in prices in this product category (-13.4%).

Concerning partner countries, April saw a decrease in exports to Spain (-3.1%), mainly industrial supplies (-8.7%), to the Netherlands (-15.6%), mainly fuels and lubricants (-65.8%) and industrial supplies (-22.2%), and to Italy (-9.5%) with a decrease in transport equipment (-36.3%).

Excluding fuels and lubricants, the decrease in exports was 3.0%, compared with an increase of 0.3% in March.

Despite this decline in April, in cumulative terms for the year, exports increased by 4.0% in the first four months of 2025, compared with the same period in 2024.

“However, when transactions without transfer of ownership (TTE) are excluded, exports fell by 1.5% in the first four months of the year (+0.1% in the same period of 2024),” according to INE.

In terms of imports, there were notable increases in purchases of industrial supplies (+13.0%), mainly chemical products imported from Ireland for work to order (without transfer of ownership), according to INE.

“On the other hand, there was a decrease in imports of fuels and lubricants (-22.5%), mainly crude petroleum oils, to some extent also as a result of the decrease in prices of these products (-7.6%),” adds the statistics office.