Foreign trade and Industrial import prices

In December 2019 seasonally-adjusted data, compared to November 2019, decreased for outgoing flows (-0.9%) and increased for incoming flows (+0.8%). Exports fell for both non EU countries (-1.0%) and EU countries (-0.8%). Imports dropped by -1.8% for non EU countries and increased by +2.6% for EU countries.

Over the last three months, seasonally-adjusted data, compared to the previous three months, raised for exports (+0.9%) and decreased for imports (-1.7%).

In December 2019, compared with the same month of the previous year, exports raised (+4.2%) and imports decreased (-2.2%). Outgoing flows increased by +5.1% for non EU countries and by +3.4% for EU countries. Incoming flows dropped by -5.9% for non EU area and increased by +0.3% for EU area. The trade balance in December 2019 amounted to +5,013 million Euros (+5,761 million Euros for non EU area and -748 million Euros for EU countries).

In the year 2019, outgoing flows increased by 2.3% (+1.1% for EU countries and +3.8% for non EU countries) and incoming flows decreased by 0.7% (0.0% for EU countries and -1.8% for non EU countries) compared with 2018.

In 2019 the trade balance registered a surplus of 52,940 million euro compared to the surplus of 39,280 million euro in 2018; excluding energy, the surplus was equal to 91,418 million euro, up compared with a 81,045 million euro surplus in 2018.

In December 2019, the total import prices index decreased by 0.1% on monthly basis (-0.2% for the euro zone, +0.2 for the non-euro zone). The quarterly total index of import prices increased by 0.3% compared to the previous period (-0.3% for the euro zone and +0.8% for the non-euro zone).

The total index of import prices decreased by 0.6% in December 2019, compared with December 2018 (-0.6% for the euro zone and -0.4% for the non-euro zone). In the year 2019, compared with 2018, import prices decreased by 1.0% (+0.2% for the euro zone and -1.9% for the non-euro zone).