In December 2021, exports and imports of goods recorded nominal year-on-year growth rates of +23.4% and +34.7%, respectively (+16.2% and +34.4%, in the same order, in November 2021). Compared to December 2019, the rates of change were +14.5% in exports and +27.7% in imports. The emphasis is on the increases in exports and imports of Industrial supplies (+35.3% and +49.6%; +41.0% and +58.6% compared to 2019, respectively) and in imports of Fuels and lubricants (+111.8%; +40.0% vis-à-vis 2019).

Excluding Fuels and lubricants, exports and imports grew by 23.6% and 28.1%, respectively (+16.5% and +25.7%, in the same order, in November 2021). Vis-à-vis December 2019, exports increased by 19.7% and imports grew by 26.1%. 

The deficit of trade balance in goods increased by EUR 982 million when compared with the same month of 2020 (it increased by EUR 1,001 million when compared with December 2019), amounting to EUR 2,430 million in December 2021. Excluding Fuels and lubricants, the trade deficit amounted to EUR 1,785 million (i.e., increasing by EUR 535 million compared to 2020 and growing by EUR 581 million vis-à-vis 2019).

In the 4th quarter of 2021, exports of goods increased by 13.2% and imports grew by 28.7% when compared with the same period of 2020 (+9.3% and +23.6%, in the same order, in the quarter ended in November 2021). When compared with the 4th quarter of 2019, exports and imports increased by 9.7% and 16.5%, respectively. 

Considering the year 2021 as a whole, exports and imports of goods increased by 18.1% and 21.1%, respectively (-10.3% and -14.8% in 2020, in the same order), with the deficit of the trade balance of goods increasing by EUR 4,653 million to EUR 19,041 million. Compared to the same period in 2019, when the trade balanced registered a deficit of EUR 20,074 million, exports increased by 6.0% and imports grew by 3.2% with the emphasis, concerning both flows, on the increase in Industrial supplies (+14.1% and +23.5%; +26.8% and +35.8% compared to 2020, respectively) and the decrease in Transport equipment (-10.1% and -30.9%; +8.6% and +3.5% compared to 2020, in the same order).

The enterprises that resorted to international Sourcing as part of their production process (see the text box in this press release), showed a greater resilience than the remaining enterprises in terms of exports and imports of goods, with less negative variations in 2020 (-4.2% and -7.1%, compared to -10.5% and -15.0%, respectively) and a greater recovery in 2021, vis-à-vis the levels of 2019 (+6.7% compared to +5.9% in exports; +4.5% compared to +3.1% in imports).