Foreign trade

Istat presents data on Italy’s foreign trade as well as unit value and volume indices (base year 2010=100) referring to December 2015. The results of the flash estimates on extra-EU trade for December 2015 have been disseminated on January 25.

• Compared to the previous month, exports in December decreased by 2.2%, reflecting a growth in sales for non-European countries (+0.9%) and a fall for European markets (-4.7%). The fall in imports (-3.5%) is due to the decrease in purchases for both European countries (-3.8%) and non-European countries    (-3.0%). In the quarter (October-December 2015), exports’ increase (+1.2%) is mainly due to a rise in sales to non-EU countries (+1.6%). The fall in imports (-0.6%) is due to a reduction of purchases of goods from EU markets (-0.5%) and non-EU markets (-0.6%).

• In December 2015, compared with the same month of the previous year, exports’ increase (+3.0%) reflected a growth in sales for both EU (+2.0%) and non-EU markets (+4.1%). The growth of imports (+2.6%) is mainly due to an increase of purchases by EU countries (+4.2%). In December, trade balance amounted to +6.0 billion euros: +0.1 billion for EU countries and +5.9 billion for non-EU countries. Net of energy products, the balance was +8.5 billion euros.

Date of next release: March 17 2016