Foreign Trade; Absolute Data

The decline in the months March, April and May, which were the first months particularly coined by corona-related restrictions, significantly contributed to the negative development of the reporting year as a whole. A general flattening of exports as well as imports was already seen in January and February 2020, before the first Corona lockdown in Austria took place. In the last two reporting months of 2020, slight growth was seen in both trade flows: November (imports: +1.3%, exports: +3.3%) and December (imports: +2.1%, exports: +3.3%)

Trade according to goods categories

Imports of Machinery and transport equipment decreased by 11.2% to €50.45 bn and showed the strongest minus in terms of value and the highest value for imports. The value of imports of Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials decreased by 32.8% to €8.26 bn.

The highest decrease for exports revealed Machinery and transport equipment, Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material and Miscellaneous manufactured articles.

Trade with the EU-27

Overall, trade with the EU member states (European Union as of 2020 without United Kingdom) accounted for 68.4% of total imports (year 2019: 68.3%) and 67.6% of total exports (year 2019: 66.7%). In 2020 as a whole, imports of goods from the EU partner countries sunk by 8.4% to €98.77 bn. Exports of goods to these countries declined by 5.9% to €96.39 bn. Compared with the previous year; the deficit in trade with the EU declined from €5.39 bn to €2.38 bn.

The most important EU-trading partners for imports were Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, the Netherlands, Hungary and France. All of these countries showed a deficit for imports.

Germany, Italy, France, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary played an important role in Austrian exports to the EU Member States. With the exception of Poland (+6.6%) all these countries recorded a decrease for exports.

The largest decline with respect to imports and exports was recorded for Machinery and transport equipment (intra-EU-imports: -11.7% to €35.62bn; intra-EU-exports: -11.2% to €33.82bn). The same applies to Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material (intra-EU-imports: -7.3% to €17.86 bn; intra-EU-exports: -8.6% to €20.93 bn).

Trade with non-EU countries

The value of imports from non-EU countries decreased by 8.7% to €45.66 bn as well as exports declined by 9.6% to €46.18 bn. The balance of trade with non-EU countries showed a surplus of €0.52 bn. In the year 2020 an amount of 31.6% of all imports were registered with third countries while the share of exports was 32.4%.

China, Switzerland and the United States were the most important non-EU-trading partners on the import side and showed positive change rates compared with 2019 (except United States, -25.9%). On the export side the three major non-EU countries were: United States followed by Switzerland and United Kingdom. The export values of these three third countries decreased (exception: Switzerland).

The decrease of import values of Machinery and transport equipment (-10.1% to €14.83 bn) and Miscellaneous manufactured articles (-7.2% to €9.10 bn) from non-EU countries contributed essentially to this development.

The export-related reduction was largely attributable to Machinery and transport equipment (-13.1% to €20.58 bn), Chemicals and related products (-0.7% to €7.81 bn) and Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material (-13.1% to €7.80 bn).