This Decade, Most EU States' Imports Got Dearer Faster Than Their Exports

What a country's exports fetch against what its imports cost

In 2025, in 19 of the 27 Member States, the average price of the goods a country sold abroad had risen less since 2021 than the average price of the goods it bought from abroad. In the other eight it had risen more. Eurostat records this as the terms of trade: an index of export unit values divided by an index of import unit values, both set to 100 in 2021. A reading below 100 means that, on average, the same quantity of exports now pays for a smaller quantity of imports than it did in 2021; a reading above 100 means it pays for more.

A unit value is the value of a shipment divided by its quantity, recorded as a weight in kilograms and, for some goods, also in litres, pieces or another unit: an average price per unit of goods. Eurostat computes it product by product and partner by partner, links the year-on-year changes into a chain and publishes the result as an index. Because it averages over whatever was shipped, it moves when the mix of goods changes as well as when prices do. It stands in for trade prices; it is not a survey of them.

Average prices rose in both directions everywhere. In 2025 every Member State's export index and every import index stood above 100: exports from 111.8 in Malta to 148.3 in Slovenia, imports from 117.2 in the Netherlands to 134.0 in Luxembourg. The terms of trade say which of the two rose faster.

Most below the line, many only just

The nineteen Member States below 100 are not all far from it. Nine sit between 99.0 and 99.9: Belgium, Portugal, Estonia, Greece, Slovakia, Ireland, France, Romania and Austria. The other ten are below 99, down to Malta at 88.1, Cyprus at 91.6 and Luxembourg at 92.8, with Bulgaria at 93.7, Croatia at 94.4 and Denmark at 95.3 above them.

Eight are above 100. Slovenia leads at 115.5, followed by the Netherlands at 105.5, Italy at 105.3, Czechia at 105.1, Germany at 104.7 and Poland at 103.9. Lithuania at 102.0 and Latvia at 101.1 sit closer to the line.

The year almost everyone lost ground

In 2022 import unit values outran export unit values almost everywhere, and 24 of the 27 Member States fell below their 2021 level. Only Luxembourg and Finland, both at 101.3, and Slovenia at 101.1 stayed above it. For 14 Member States, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands among them, 2022 is the lowest point of a series that begins in 2014. Italy recorded the lowest terms of trade in the Union that year, 89.6, with Malta at 90.1 and Ireland at 91.4 next. The table covers all goods together, so it cannot show which products drove the jump.

Greece is a reminder that large swings in average prices and a large swing in the terms of trade are different things. In 2022 it had both the highest export index in the EU, 136.6, and the highest import index, 138.7. Because the two climbed almost together, its terms of trade only slipped to 98.5.

Who recovered, and from which side

Between 2022 and 2025 the terms of trade rose in 18 Member States and fell in nine. Reading the export and import indices separately shows that the gains came from different directions.

Italy's was the largest, 15.7 points by derived difference, from 89.6 to 105.3: from the bottom of the ranking to third place. Both halves moved its way. Its export unit value index went from 118.5 to 132.6 while its import index fell from 132.3 to 125.9.

Slovenia's rise of 14.4 points, also derived, came almost entirely from what it sells. Its import index hardly moved, from 128.7 to 128.4, while its export index went from 130.1 to 148.3, well clear of Italy's 132.6 in second place. Slovenia is the only Member State whose terms of trade stayed above 100 in every year from 2022 to 2025, and it has ranked first since 2023.

The Netherlands, third with a derived gain of 8.6 points, gained on both sides in about equal measure: its import index fell from 122.7 to 117.2, the lowest of the 27 in 2025, while its export index rose from 118.9 to 123.7. Germany climbed from 97.3 to 104.7 with its exports doing more of the work, rising from 116.4 to 122.9 while its imports eased from 119.6 to 117.4.

Who fell further behind

Luxembourg lost most, 8.5 points by derived difference, from 101.3 to 92.8, and the loss sits on the import side. Its import unit value index was the joint third lowest in the Union in 2022, at 119.4 like Finland's, and the highest in 2025, at 134.0, while its export index rose only from 121.0 to 124.4.

Cyprus lost a derived 7.7 points on the export side: its export index fell from 127.9 to 116.5 while its import index eased from 128.8 to 127.2. Its terms of trade have fallen in every year since 2018, from 116.8 to 91.6. Finland, one of the three Member States above 100 in 2022, dropped a derived 3.7 points to 97.6, as its export index fell from 121.0 to 116.5 and its import index ended where it started, at 119.4.

Malta has ranked second lowest in every year from 2022 to 2024 and lowest in 2025, when it reads 88.1, its export index of 111.8 set against an import index of 126.9.

Why the EU's own figure is left out

Eurostat's table also carries an index for the EU, and in 2025 it reads 110.4, the highest value in its series since 2014 and above every Member State except Slovenia. It is not an average of the 27. In the dataset this table is drawn from, Eurostat publishes the EU's indices for trade with countries outside the Union, with the same values, and each Member State's for its trade with every country. A national index therefore includes trade between Member States, where one country's export is another's import, and the EU index leaves that trade out.

What the EU figure does say is that, in trade with the rest of the world, the Union's export unit value index rose from 119.2 in 2022 to 128.7 in 2025 while its import index fell from 129.1 to 116.6. That describes the Union's dealings with non-EU countries, not the typical Member State, and neither ranking here carries an EU reference row.

A base year that was not a quiet one

2021 is the reference year Eurostat chose, and it was not a neutral one. In 24 Member States the terms of trade were higher in 2020 than in 2021, so the base already sits after a fall. Set against 2019 instead, nine Member States read higher in 2025, 17 lower, and France exactly the same at 99.3. Belgium and Estonia join the gainers on that comparison and Lithuania leaves them, but most Member States are behind on either base.