Exports increased 8.5 percent from a month earlier to CHF 20.4 billion in June, driven by sales of chemical and pharmaceutical products (23.8 percent). By contrast, sales decreased for machinery and electronics (-7.5 percent); food, beverages and tobacco (-1.3 percent); metals (-4.7 percent); watchmaking (-7.1 percent); precision instruments (-4.2 percent), and jewellery (-8.5 percent).
Among major trade partners, exports rose to the US (15.8 percent); Spain (13.8 percent); the Netherlands (18.7 percent); Ireland (9.1 percent); Austria (1.7 percent); Singapore (5.8 percent); Hong Kong (3.8 percent), and South Korea (2.6 percent). Meantime, there were decreases in exports to China (-4.8 percent); Japan (-3.4 percent); Germany (-0.6 percent); France (-1.5 percent), and Italy (-3.9 percent).
Imports declined 0.8 percent to CHF 17.1 billion, mainly due to lower purchases of machinery and electronics (-2.6 percent); jewellery (-23.1 percent); and metals (-1.7 percent). On the other hand, imports rose for: pharmaceutical products (6.0 percent); vehicles (2.8 percent); textiles, clothing, footwear (0.3 percent), and food, beverages and tobacco (2.7 percent)
Among major trade partners, imports went down from the US (-7.2 percent); China (-0.9 percent); Germany (-4.1 percent); France (-13.2 percent); Belgium (-17.2 percent); Italy (-1.0 percent); Spain (-4.9 percent); Austria (-9.4 percent), and Singapore (-16.6 percent) while imports fell from Japan (9.0 percent); Ireland (30.2 percent).
Considering the first half of the year, the trade surplus widened to CHF 12.9 billion from CHF 8.7 billion in the same period of 2018.
