SRM (Studies and Research for the South) has made available a report on the commercial relations between the countries of the Mediterranean area and Italy. The report, which is an update of the chapter “Italian economic positioning in the Mediterranean basin” published in “SRM, Economic relations between Italy and the Mediterranean. Annual Report 2011”, is available as an attachment.
Reading the report, two points of considerable importance emerge: first of all, the Mediterranean area forms a very dynamic and constantly growing market with an increase in trading volumes that has almost doubled in 10 years. Secondly, in this market, Italy can exploit a leading position deriving from its geographical centrality within the area.
The Med Area is made up of 12 countries divided into three macro-regions: Southern Med including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt; Eastern Med formed by Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Türkiye; Adriatic Med composed of Albania, Bosnia and Croatia.
The data analysis demonstrates how the trend relating to trade between Italy and the Med Area is constantly growing, with the exception of the general decline in 2009 which affected trade in all countries.
The last year, characterized by the so-called Arab Spring, recorded a contraction of around 5 billion, however entirely due to the collapse of oil imports from Libya (-70%). This demonstrates the importance that this area has for Italy. In fact, although the countries of the Southern Med area were more or less directly involved in a transformation movement, there was no yielding from the point of view of trade relations.
The report also analyzes the role of the Italian macro-regions by disaggregating the values of total trade with the countries of the Med Area. The North-West leads the ranking with 31,5% of the total, followed by the South with 22,2%. Of course, this figure is largely influenced by the geographical conformation of the country and by the strong specialization of regions such as Sicily or Sardinia in the exchange of energy products.
The projections to 2013 made by SRM record a significant growth in Italian trade with the Med Area (72 billion euros) which will allow to widen the differential with the other European competitors and further affirm Italy's role as leader in the Mediterranean area
Attachments: Relations in the Mediterranean_Srm_0212.pdf
