Page 81 - GHES-1-2

Global Health Econ Sustain Imports of essential medical products

include a variable that reflects the price of these products, demand, which was superseded by disinfectant in 2020,
that is, HICP, which measures the change over time in as the latter is an essential good needed to prevent the
the prices of consumer goods and services related to the transmission of the virus and to sanitize the surfaces
health sector. Table 2 shows the matrix of correlations in affected areas. Overall, a substantial increase in the
among GDPpc, beds, population of people aged over 65, volume of import is observed in 2020, with the exception
and HICP. of test kits.

Following Gujarati (2004), multicollinearity between Considering the total import from 2015 to 2020,
independent variables is confirmed if the correlation Table 3 shows the most relevant countries according to
coefficient is 0.8 or higher and can be classified as their import volume as a share of the total import volume
severe when the absolute value of the pair-wise of each product.
correlations between variables is very close to 1. As Germany led in the intra-EU import (except for
such, the correlation matrix demonstrates the absence of disinfectants), accounting for a significantly high share
collinearity. of most products. It is also the leading importer in almost
all products in the extra-EU sphere, with the exception of
The statistical information revealed that COVID-19 test kits. It is followed by countries such as Belgium, the
had impacted the import of almost all essential medical Netherlands, Italy, and Spain, reflecting their pressing
goods, introducing a change to the existing pattern needs arising from the pandemic. In addition, a marked
(Figure 6). In 2015, medical consumables had the highest concentration can be observed: the top five importing
countries together account for almost 60% of international
Table 2. Correlation matrix*
purchases, rising to 81% in the case of disinfectants.
GDPpc Beds Pop65 HICP Avendaño (2020) and García et al. (2020) reported a
GDPpc 1 similar pattern at the global level: official statistics revealed
Beds −0.373 1 the high and concentrated participation of developed
economies in the trade in medical products, with the
Pop65 0.007 0.166 1 United States and Germany occupying the top positions,
HICP −0.194 0.200 −0.187 1 followed by China.
Abbreviations: GDPpc: Gross domestic product per capita;
HICP: Harmonized Index of Consumer Price for Health; Pop65: Figure 7 shows the main suppliers of medical products
Population of people aged over 65. during the period 2015 – 2020.

Table 3. Top 5 importers of medical product categories (2015 – 2020)

Test kits Disinfectants Medical Medical Oxygen therapy Protective Medical vehicles
consumables devices equipment garments & furniture
Extra-EU trade
DEU (32%) NLD (37%) DEU (19%) DEU (18%) DEU (44%) DEU (23%) DEU (26%)
BEL (14%) BEL (15%) NLD (12%) ITA (14%) ESP (10%) NLD (14%) NLD (12%)
NLD (11%) SWE (10%) BEL (11%) NLD (13%) NLD (7%) FRA (14%) FRA (8%)
FRA (11%) FRA (8%) FRA (10%) ESP (9%) BEL (6%) ITA (9%) ESP (8%)
ITA (7%) ITA (6%) IRL (7%) FRA (9%) ITA (6%) ESP (8%) POL (7%)
Total 75% Total 81% Total 59% Total 63% Total 79% Total 69% Total 62%
Intra-EU trade
FRA (20%) DEU (30%) DEU (17%) DEU (23%) DEU (23%) DEU (17%) DEU (26%)
DEU (12%) NLD (16%) FRA (16%) FRA (13%) ESP (19%) FRA (13%) FRA (13%)
ESP (11%) FRA (8%) BEL (9%) ESP (10%) FRA (9%) BEL (8%) NLD (7%)
POL (11%) ITA (7%) NLD (6%) BEL (7%) POL (8%) CZE (8%) BEL (6%)
ITA (9%) BEL (6%) ITA (6%) ITA (7%) ITA (7%) ESP (7%) AUT (6%)
Total 63% Total 67% Total 54% Total 58% Total 66% Total 53% Total 58%
Note: A country’s import of a product is given as a percentage of total extra- or intra-EU trade in that product (in parentheses).
Abbreviations: AUT: Austria; BEL: Belgium; CZE: Czechia; DEU: Germany; ESP: Spain; FRA: France; IRL: Ireland; ITA: Italy; NLD: The Netherlands;
POL: Poland.

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 7 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.1207