Extra-Eu foreign trade

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

In May 2012, exports to non-EU countries increased by 14.1% and imports decreased by 0.9% compared with the same month of the previous year. The trade balance showed a surplus of 306 million euro (Table 1) compared with a 1,877 million euro deficit in the same month of 2011.

In May 2012, in seasonally-adjusted terms, exports increased by 5.5% and imports increased by 1.2% compared with April 2012. Over the last three months, seasonally-adjusted data showed a 4.9% increase in outgoing flows and a 1.3% increase in incoming flows in comparison with the previous three months.

In the period January-May 2012 exports to non-EU countries increased by 9.3% and imports decreased by 3.1% compared with the same period of 2011. The trade balance registered a deficit of 6,745 million euro compared to the deficit of 15,378 million euro in the same period of 2011. Excluding energy, the trade balance presented a surplus of 20,798 million euro (Table 3) compared with a 9,949 million euro surplus in January-May 2011.