Foreign trade

Istat presents data on Italy’s foreign trade as well as unit value and volume indices (base year 2005=100) referring to July 2012. The results of the flash estimates on extra-EU trade for July 2012 have been disseminated on September 6^th.

• to the previous month, export in July increased by 0.3% reflecting a growth of 0.8% of sales to EU markets. Imports increased by 2.9%, with a rise of purchases by both EU markets (+3.6%) and non-EU (+2.1%). In the quarter (May-July 2012), exports registered an economic growth of 1.1% due to an increase in sales to countries outside the EU (+4.3%). For purchases of goods there is a fall of 1.3% greater for non-EU markets      (-2.1%) compared to EU markets (-0.5%).

• July 2012, compared with the same month of the previous year, export increased by 4.3% and affects non-EU markets (9.5%). The decrease of imports (-4.3%) was due to reduced purchases by both EU countries (-3.9%) and non EU countries (-4.8%). In July, trade balance amounted to 4.490 million euros: 2.653 million for EU countries and 1.836 for non-EU countries. Net of energy products, the balance was 9.3 billion euros (Table 2).