Extra-Eu foreign trade

Istat presents preliminary data on Italy’s foreign trade with non-EU countries in December 2012. The results of the survey on total foreign trade in December 2012 will be disseminated on coming 15 February.

In December 2012, exports to non-EU countries increased by 1.5% and imports decreased by 7.0% compared with the same month of the previous year. The trade balance showed a surplus of 3,322 million euro (Table 1) compared with a 2,169 million euro surplus in the same month of 2011.

In December 2012, in seasonally-adjusted terms, exports decreased by 0.4% and imports decreased by 1.3% compared with November 2012. Over the last three months, seasonally-adjusted data showed a 0.7% increase in outgoing flows and a 4.6% decrease in incoming flows in comparison with the previous three months.

In 2012 exports to non-EU countries increased by 9.2% and imports decreased by 3.9% compared with 2011. The trade balance registered a surplus of 2,071 million euro compared to the deficit of 20,462 million euro in 2011. Excluding energy, the trade balance presented a surplus of 64,251 million euro (Table 3) compared with a 39,145 million euro surplus in 2011.