Catalan exports increased by 14.5% in year-on-year terms, to 53.2 billion euros, in the first half of 2023. This is a record high for the first half of the year, according to calculations by ACCIÓ, the Ministry of Business and Labour’s agency for business competitiveness, based on ICEX-Estacom figures published last Thursday.

Sales by Catalan companies abroad led exports in Spain as a whole during the period from January to June, accounting for 26.6% of the total. By sector, exports of chemical products (30.5% of the total, with a year-on-year growth of 9%), automotive products (16.2% of the total, with an increase of 77.4%) and capital goods (15.5% of the total, with a growth of 12.2%) were the leaders.

Catalan companies’ sales abroad reached 9.4 billion euros in June, 11.8% more than in the same month last year.

The Catalan Minister for Business and Labour, Roger Torrent i Ramió, highlighted “the robust and sustained growth of Catalan sales abroad in recent years, which continued in the first half of 2023.” This trend “once again shows that a focus abroad is a structural commitment of the Catalan productive fabric” and that exports “are now consolidated as one of the great strengths of our economy, and a strategic asset that acts as a major lever for our companies’ competitiveness,” he said.