Foreign trade and import prices - December 2022

In December 2022 seasonally-adjusted data, compared to November 2022, decreased by -1.9% for outgoing flows and by -1.1% for incoming flows. Exports decreased by -1.2% for EU countries and by -2.6% for non-EU countries. Imports rose by +1.5% for EU countries and fell by -3.9% for non-EU countries.

Over the last three months, seasonally-adjusted data, compared to the previous three months, increased by +0.8% for exports and dropped by -6.6% for imports.

In December 2022, compared with the same month of the previous year, both exports and imports grew (+13.5% and +7.7% respectively). Outgoing flows increased by +8.6% for EU countries and by +18.2% for non-EU countries. Incoming flows rose by +4.5% for EU area and by +11.7% for non-EU area.

In the year 2022, compared to 2021, outgoing flows raised by +19.9% (+19.7% for EU countries and +20.2% for non EU countries) and incoming flows increased by +36.5% (22.8% for EU countries and +54.4% for non EU countries).

The trade balance in December 2022 amounted to +1,067 million Euros (-2,932 million Euros for EU countries and +4,000 million Euros for non-EU countries). In the year 2022, the trade balance registered a deficit of 31,011 million euro compared to the surplus of 40,334 million euro the year earlier; excluding energy, the surplus was equal to 80,267 million euro compared with a 88,690 million euro surplus in 2021.

In December 2022, import prices decreased by 1.6% on monthly basis (unchanged for the euro zone, -3.0% for the non-euro zone). Over the last three months, compared to the previous three months, import prices decreased by 1.6% (-0.3% for the euro zone, -2.7% for the non-euro zone).

Import prices, compared to the same month a year ago, increased by 11.3% in December 2022 (+7.7% for the euro zone, +14.9% for the non-euro zone). In 2022, compared with 2021, import prices rose by 18.5% (+10.2% for the euro zone, +26.4% for the non-euro zone).