Milan (awp/afp) – Italy registered a trade deficit of 4.19 billion euros in January, compared to a surplus of 1.06 billion in December 2022, the National Statistics Institute (Istat) announced on Friday.

In January 2022, the deficit stood at 6,520 million.

Italy’s energy deficit rose to 7.76 billion euros in January from 7.61 billion a year earlier.

Exports increased by 15.3% in one year, driven mainly by markets outside the European Union (EU) (+20.5%), those destined for the EU increased by 11.3%.

The increase in exports was particularly strong for pharmaceuticals and botanicals (+53.9%), machinery and equipment (+19.8%), food, beverages and tobacco (+17.6%).

The countries that contributed the most to the increase in exports were China (+137.5%), France (+17.1%), Germany (+6.1%), Turkey (+48.3%), Switzerland (+ 14.4%) and the United Kingdom (+16%).

Imports, for their part, increased by 8.4% in January in one year.

In December, Italy registered a trade surplus of 1.06 billion euros, compared to a deficit of 1.47 billion euros in the same month of 2021.

For the whole of 2022, Italy posted a trade deficit of €31 billion as a result of rising energy prices.

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