After a decrease of 5.3% in 2020 because of the global health crisis, the Walloon exports bounced back remarkably in 2021 with a strong increase of 13.5%. This improvement in our foreign trade is the biggest annual increase since 2010 (+13%). This rebound allows our exports to reach a total of 53.4 billion €, which is an all-time record and the first time that the 50 billion € total is exceeded.
For the US in particular, after an unusual down year in 2020 (-8,5%), our exports are starting to increase again, in 2021 (+3.1%) With that result, the United States consolidate their third position in the rank of our biggest trade partners (12,6% of the total of exports), after Germany (15.5%) and France (21.7%)
This clear increase in 2021 applies mainly to the following sectors:
- Mineral products (+70.1%)
- Wood and wood work (+29.6%)
- Plastic material and rubber (+29.3%)
- Metallic products (+28.8%)