High-tech exports from Catalonia went up 18% in 2019

Catalan exports of high-tech products went up 18.2% in 2019 and reached a total of 8.7 billion euros, according to Catalonia's Statistics Institute, Idescat.

The rise was above all due to particularly strong sales of pharmaceutical products (+23.4%) and IT, electronic and optical products (+3.8%).  The increase in high-tech exports to the European Union went up 20.3%, while those outside the EU rose 16.1%.

As a whole, the export of industrial products accounted for a total of 70 billion euros last year, an increase of 3.2% compared to the previous year. Yet, while high-level tech sales grew 18%, those of middle-high level fell 3.5%, with low-level industrial products going up 7.8%, and those of a middle-low level up 6.6%.

Middle-high level tech products accounted for 46% of all industrial exports, and despite the fall last year reached a total of 31.9 billion euros in sales. In this category, material and electronic equipment, machinery and vehicles fell the most (-5.3%), with 2.1% fewer sales in the EU and 6.5% fewer sales outside the EU.

Meanwhile, exports of middle-low level technology products accounted for 10.4 billion euros (+6.6%), with those of a low-level amounting to 18.8 billion euros (+7.8%). As for imports of industrial products, they went up 2.9% in 2019, amounting to 83 billion euros, with high-tech products increasing the most (up 11.2%).

Source: Catalan News