Extra-Eu foreign trade

Istat presents preliminary data on Italy’s foreign trade with non-EU countries in March 2012. The results of the survey on total foreign trade in March 2012 will be disseminated on coming 16 May.

In March 2012, exports to non-EU countries increased by 12.3% and imports decreased by 10.2% compared with the same month of the previous year. The trade balance showed a surplus of 495 million euro (Table 1) compared with a 3,064 million euro deficit in the same month of 2011.

In March 2012, in seasonally-adjusted terms, exports increased by 4.0% and imports decreased by 1.5% compared with February 2012. Over the last three months, seasonally-adjusted data showed a 2.4% increase in outgoing flows and a 0.8% increase in incoming flows in comparison with the previous three months.

In the period January-March 2012 exports to non-EU countries increased by 10.0% and imports decreased by 2.2% compared with the same period of 2011. The trade balance registered a deficit of 6,163 million euro compared to the deficit of 10,985 million euro in the same period of 2011. Excluding energy, the trade balance presented a surplus of 10,932 million euro (Table 3) compared with a 4,440 million euro surplus in January-March 2011.