Page 56 - economic report 2021

2. Geographical distribution of foreign trade

2.1. Imports

In 2021, imports saw a slight increase of 1%, linked to the recovery in demand after the
COVID-19 crisis. Imports from Europe stagnated, and consequently, their percentage of total
Andorran purchases from abroad remained at about 93%, but is still the main geographical source
of Andorra’s purchases from abroad and one of the highest percentages in the historical series
that started in 1991.

In 2021, the trend in imports from all continents Imports from Spain fell 9.5% while
was positive, but especially the increase in imports from France increased 15.9%.
purchases from America (14.8%) - driven by
the increase in imports from the USA (6.1%),
despite the fact that its percentage of the total is only 0.9% - and from Asia (9.7%) – representing
5% of the total. Finally, imports from Africa saw a slight increase of 1.6%, but they are only 0.2%
of the total.

Within the European Union, purchases from Spain, Andorra’s main supplier, fell 9.5%, so Spain
was one of the few countries that recorded a negative rate last year. Due to this decline,
Spain’s percentage of total purchases fell from 72.6% in 2020 to 65.0% in 2021. Equally, part
of this decline can be explained by the strong increase recorded last year (7.3%), which was
an unusual year, making the percentage of Spanish imports the highest in the historical series
if we ignore 2020.

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In contrast, the trend in imports from France was positive (15.9%), breaking the downward trend
of the last four years. Consequently, their percentage of the total rose one and a half points to
10.7%, although this figure is still far from what they represented in the 1990s (30%). Nevertheless,
France is still the second largest supplier to Andorra, well above the third and fourth, Germany
and Italy, with 5.4% and 3.8% of the total, respectively. These latter two countries saw significant
increases in Andorran imports in 2021 (58.7% and 55.1%, respectively), which raised their overall
percentage. Note that in 2021, Spain was the country that made the most negative contribution to
import variation (-6.9 percentage points), partially offset by the combined positive contributions
from France, Germany and Italy (4.9 percentage points).
The Andorran economy: general developments | VII. The foreign sector

Outside the EU, imports from the In relation to countries outside the EU-27
United Kingdom, Switzerland, the USA but inside Europe, the United Kingdom and
and China increased, among others. Switzerland stand out. Imports from the
United Kingdom saw an increase of almost
72% and reached 1.8% of the total, the highest
percentage since 2005. In the case of imports from Switzerland, the increase was also important,
by 67.1%, raising its percentage of total imports to 1.7%. Remember that the United Kingdom left
the EU at the start of 2020, although a transition period was planned until 31 December 2020, so
the impact of Brexit on trade became more noticeable from 2021, and was not negative.

As for imports from Asia, those from China are the most significant. The trend in purchases from
China was quite positive (9.5%), so its share of the total increased to 2.7%. Due to this trend, China
became the fifth most important supplier to Andorra in 2021, behind Spain, France, Germany and
Italy. Japan also stands out within the Asian context. However, purchases from Japan suffered a
0.3% reduction in 2021, reducing its share of the total to 0.4%, far from the 6.2% it represented
in the early nineties. This change is greatly related to the loss of attractiveness suffered by the
Andorran sector of electronics commerce over recent years. A large part of these purchases