According to Istat, Italy's trade balance with non-EU countries improves in September, a balance that marks a deficit of 596 million euros against 1.832 million in the same month of 2011, while the surplus in the exchange of non-energy products increases, from 3.038 to 4.518 million euros.
The volume of trade with foreign countries has registered a decrease in both imports (-4,3%) and exports (-2,0%) compared to the previous month. As far as imports are concerned, the most significant decline was that of durable consumer goods (-12,6%) and intermediate products (-9,3%), while among exports, the most significant decline was that of energy (-15,9%).
Instead, taking into consideration theIn the last quarter, the cyclical change in exports (+0,8%) remains positive, while imports remain stable (+0,1%). On an annual basis there is an increase in exports of 0,3%. Only instrumental goods went against the trend (-2,5%). There was a heavy drop in imports, which fell by 7,6% compared to the same period last year, with the only notable exception being the 5% increase in energy.
In comparison with September 2011, the growth in exports of ASEAN (+22,9%), United States (+18,5%) and Opec countries stands out, while the most marked contractions involve China (-18,9%) and Mercosur (-13,9%).
