Published the Istat report which describes the Italian trade situation in December: the surplus was equal to +1,4 billion euros, marking a clear improvement compared to the same month of the previous year (-3 billion), mainly due to the increased surplus of the non-energy balance, settling at 6,5 billion against 2,4 in December 2010.
At the economic level, also in the month of December, there was a 4,2% increase in exports, with very substantial growth towards non-EU markets (+5,6%). On the other hand, imports from non-EU countries dropped by 3,2%, generating the drop in imports by 0,8%.
La trend growth of 5,7% in exports in December it can essentially be explained by the increase in sales on non-EU markets (+11,4%), while the change of 0,8% towards the EU is not very significant. Also the decrease in imports (-8,4%) largely depends on flows from non-EU countries (-12,5%).
Also in December, the trend dynamics of volumes is slightly positive for exports (+0,4%) and in strong contraction for imports (-16,4%). During the year, exported volumes increased by 4%, those imported decreased by 1,8%.
Considering instead the last quarter recorded a 1,4% growth in exports, compared to the previous quarter, with a greater increase on the EU markets (+1,8%). A decrease of 2,1% was observed for purchases from abroad.
Looking then for the whole of 2011 we can see the increase in exports of 11,4%, and also in this case the most substantial increase, of 14,9%, is recorded in exports from outside the EU. Imports increased by 8,9% (+12,6% from non-EU countries and +5,8% from EU countries).
During the year the deficit stood at 24,3 billion euro, an improvement compared to 2010 (-30 billion), an improvement that can be explained, in more detail, with the substantial increase in the non-energy trade surplus, which rose from 22 billion in 2010 to 27,1 in the last year, an increase partially nullified by the worsening of the energy deficit, to 61,4 billion from 52 of 2010.
