Record trade surplus in 2016 for Italy thanks to a strong increase in sales to Japan and China and a parallel drop in imports from Russia. These are the data released today by Istat, according to which, the trade balance surplus amounted to 51,566 billion euros (+78 billion net of energy) compared to the surplus of 41,807 billion in 2015, the highest level since 1991, the starting year of the historical series. Over the past year, in percentage terms, Italian exports increased by 1,1% in value and 1,2% in volume compared to the previous year.
"Overall, exports are confirmed as the most dynamic component of our economy: our companies do well in medium-high technology sectors, as well as in food and fashion", comments Ivan Scalfarotto, Undersecretary for Economic Development.
As regards the month of December alone, the trade balance recorded a surplus of 5,798 billion euros, compared to a surplus of 5,586 billion in the same month of 2015.
Overall exports in December rose by 5,7% over the year to 36.214 million, thanks above all to the growth in sales to China (+20,9%), Mercosur countries (+19,9%), Poland (+19,1 %) and the United States (+12,1%); imports amounted to 30.417 million, up 6,1% in trend terms. The balance of the balance with the EU weights in the month under observation stood at 124 million from the deficit of 301 million in December 2015.
To the data released by the National Institute of Statistics are added those released by Eurostat according to which, in 2016, the trade surplus of our country was placed in third place in the European ranking, behind Germany, unattainable with 257,3 billion euros and to the Netherlands with 59,9 billion.
