I data collected relating to Italian foreign trade for the month of June and the first six months of 2013 published yesterday by Istat show some signs of optimism. In fact, it continues economic recovery of exports, started in May and concentrated on EU markets (+3,8%), registering an increase of 1,2% compared to the previous month. There strong growth in both sales of durable consumer goods (+7,8%) and instrumental goods (+2,8%) suggests a possible turning point in European domestic demand both in terms of consumption and investments, premonitory signals which in the best hypotheses will lead to an impetus expected to consolidate in the second half of the year.
Continues positive trend of the trade surplus, marking a further monthly increase of 3,6 billion euro (improved compared to 2,8 billion in June 2012) which brings the surplus for the first six months of 12,3 to 2013 billion, already higher than that recorded in entire 2012 (11 billion), while the positive balance of manufacturing reached 40 billion. It will therefore be necessary to leverage these strengths to stimulate Made in Italy production activities, the only ones capable of getting the country out of recession and social depression.
From a sector point of view, the positive performance of the chemical-pharmaceutical sector which recorded a new increase in foreign sales of 9,2% compared to the same month of 2012, bringing the aggregate increase in the first six months of 18,3 to 2013%. recovery in sales of means of transport (+8,7%), which was associated with the new growth in exports of agricultural products (+8,2%) and food (+1,7%), demonstrating the positive results that the Italian agro-food sector is registering on international markets. Positive signals also come from other typical sectors of our exports, such as tanning-shoes, the category of other manufacturing sectors such as sporting goods and jewellery, but also wood products and tiles.
From a geographical point of view, alongside the continuous expansion of sales in MERCOSUR (+37,2%), in Oceania (+20%) and sub-Saharan Africa (+17%), there is a recovery in exports to China (+14,9%), where considerable promotional and support efforts are being concentrated on the internationalization processes of Italian companies.
