Stagnating exports, but significantly higher imports in November
Published: Tuesday, Dec 19th 2023, 10:41
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Swiss foreign trade showed a divergent trend in November. While exports stabilized compared to the previous month, imports increased significantly. However, the figures were overstated in both directions by the pharmaceuticals sector.
Exports totaled CHF 21.2 billion in November 2023, as reported by the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (FOCBS) on Tuesday. Seasonally adjusted, exports thus fell slightly by 0.5% compared to the previous month. However, in real terms - i.e. adjusted for price changes - this resulted in an increase of 1.8 percent. Exports have thus trended slightly downwards over the course of the year to date.
Imports in the month under review amounted to 19.2 billion, which corresponds to a high nominal increase of 7.2% or 1.7% in real terms. According to the BAZG, this confirms the stagnation registered since spring 2023.
Meanwhile, the difference between exports and imports caused the surplus in the trade balance to shrink to CHF 2.01 billion, the lowest level since November 2022.
Strong watch industry
In terms of exports of the individual product groups, four declined and seven developed positively. The most important division, Chemical-Pharmaceuticals, which accounts for a good half of exports at 10.9 billion, more or less stagnated on balance. The pharmaceuticals subgroup, on the other hand, was able to make up for a large part of the slump in the previous month and increased significantly. According to the FOCA, the highly volatile development in the pharmaceuticals sector that has been observed for several months has thus continued.
Watches stood out positively. Here, exports increased by 1.4% compared to the previous month and by 3.1% compared to the same month last year. In the year to date and over the first eleven months, this corresponds to an increase of 7.7%. The growth is comparable to the record development in 2022, when the watch industry recorded exports of 24.8 billion Swiss francs, wrote the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) in a press release on Tuesday.
Fewer exports to North America
In terms of countries and regions, the significant decline in exports to North America (-12.1%) is particularly striking. According to the BAZG, the decline to the USA alone amounted to around a tenth, although the development should not be over-interpreted based on a single monthly figure, as a BAZG spokesperson told AWP.
The decline in exports to Asia (-3.5%) is likely to be of a more cyclical nature, with the fall in exports to Singapore, China and Turkey being the main reason for this, according to the figures. On the other hand, there was a clear increase in exports to Europe (+3.4%). The BAZG highlights the increase in exports to Slovenia, Austria and Spain in particular. Overall, however, exports have shown "weakened momentum" in recent months, according to the spokesperson.
Imports also under the sign of medication
The development of imports was also dominated by chemical-pharmaceutical products and the subgroup of medicines. Their imports increased by 65%, after the sector had reported a decline of a fifth in the previous month. Overall, however, the importance of the entire chemical-pharmaceutical sector in terms of imports is significantly lower than that of exports, accounting for a good 35% of total imports.
According to the BAZG, there was also an increase in imports in the jewelry and jewelry goods as well as textiles, clothing and shoes groups, while purchases fell in the remaining eight product groups. The regional development looks like this: Switzerland sourced more goods from North America (+11.2%) and Europe (+7.9%) in the month under review, whereas imports from Asia (-2.6%) fell.
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