The evolution of Spain’s hightech exports through 2023

Spain’s high-tech product export intensity ranked sixteenth in the EU-27 in 2022, which is a considerable improvement from its position between 2014 and 2018. Despite this recent convergence with the EU, Spain’s trade deficit in this product category has widened to €16.8 billion in 2023. The biggest contributor to that deficit was the electronics-telecommunications sector (deficit of 11.1 billion euros), followed by computers-office machinery and scientific instruments. Elsewhere, of the sectors reporting a surplus, the largest was less than €700 million. The best performers in that respect were the armament, non-electrical machinery, aerospace and pharmaceuticals sectors. In the latter sector, export volumes to Belgium between 2021-2023 were very significant, yet atypical. Given the role played by the high-tech manufacturing industry in unlocking sustained competitiveness gains, strategies are needed to further improve Spain’s recent achievements in this area and to start to close the technology gap with other countries.