Foreign trade with non-EU countries

Istat presents preliminary data on Italy’s foreign trade with non-EU countries in May 2016. The results of the survey on total foreign trade in May 2016 will be disseminated on coming 15 July.

In May 2016 exports to non-EU countries decreased by 1.7% and imports decreased by 5.8% compared with the same month of the previous year. The trade balance showed a surplus of 3,257 million euro (Table 1) compared with a 2,756 million euro surplus in the same month of 2015.

In May 2016, in seasonally-adjusted terms, exports decreased by 3.0% and imports decreased by 1.1% compared with April 2016. Over the last three months, seasonally-adjusted data showed a 1.3% increase in outgoing flows and a 0.5% decrease in incoming flows in comparison with the previous three months.

In the period January-May 2016 exports to non-EU countries decreased by 4.1% and imports decreased by 7.9% compared with the same period of 2015. The trade balance registered a surplus of 13,013 million euro compared to the surplus of 11,035 million euro in the same period of 2015. Excluding energy, the trade balance presented a surplus of 22,765 million euro (Table 3) compared with a 24,693 million euro surplus in January-May 2015.