## France, Germany, Italy, and Spain: Explaining Differences in External Sector Performance Among Large Euro Area Countries

_IMF Staff Country Reports, November 8, 2005_

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**Canonical URL:** [France, Germany, Italy, and Spain: Explaining Differences in External Sector Performance Among Large Euro Area Countries](https://www.imf.org/en/publications/cr/issues/2016/12/31/france-germany-italy-and-spain-explaining-differences-in-external-sector-performance-among-18692)

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## Bibliographic details
- Published: November 8, 2005
- Series: IMF Staff Country Reports
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451813036.002

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### Summary
- Cross-country paper explaining differences in external sector performance among France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
- Focus period: 2001–04.
- Core question: Why did external sector performance differ markedly among these four largest euro area countries during 2001–04?
- Approach: Describes evolution of traditional determinants of exports and imports and econometrically assesses their contributions to the evolution of trade volumes.

### Key themes and analytic approach
- Determinants analyzed:
  - Domestic and foreign demand.
  - Cost and price competitiveness.
- Methodology:
  - Descriptive evolution of determinants of exports and imports.
  - Econometric assessment of contributions to trade volume evolution during 2001–04.

### Subject coverage and keywords
- Subject: Competition, Export performance, Exports, Financial markets, Foreign exchange, Imports, International trade, Real effective exchange rates
- Keywords: area trade, Competition, cost competitiveness, CR, export margin, Export performance, Exports, France, Germany, Global, goods export, goods import, import content, import volume behavior, Imports, ISCR, Italy, observed export, price, Real effective exchange rates, Spain, trade partner demand

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/cr/issues/2016/12/31/france-germany-italy-and-spain-explaining-differences-in-external-sector-performance-among-18692_