Foreign trade

Istat presents data on Italy’s foreign trade as well as unit value and volume indices (base year 2005=100) referring to December 2012. The results of the flash estimates on extra-EU trade for December 2012 were disseminated on January 23rd.

• Compared to the previous month, the percentage change of export in December decreased by -0.5% reflecting a reduction in sales for both European (-0.5%) and non-European markets (-0.4%). The growth in imports (+1.3%) is due to the growth in purchases by European countries (+3.5%). In the quarter (October-December 2012), exports’ decrease (-0.7%) is due to a diminution in sales to EU countries (-1.9%). The fall in import (-2.9%) is mainly due to a reduction of purchases of goods from non-EU countries (-4.6%).

• In December 2012, compared with the same month of the previous year, export decreased by 3.7% and was due to a drop in sales by EU markets (-8.7%). The fall of imports (-6.4%) is due to non-EU countries (-7.0%) and EU countries (-6.0%). In December, trade balance amounted to +2.2 billion euros: -1.2 billion for EU countries and +3.3 billion for non-EU countries. Net of energy products, the balance was 6.8 billion euros (Table 2).