ROME - In September, exports to non-EU countries returned to growth on a monthly basis, driven by the sales of capital goods, non-durable consumer goods and intermediate goods. This is what Istat found on the basis of data on foreign trade with non-European countries.
In September 2022, the Institute of Statistics estimates, for trade exchanges with non-EU27 countries, a cyclical increase for both flows, much larger for exports (+ 5.9%) than for imports (+0.3 %).
The monthly increase in exports concerns all the main groups of industries, with the exception of energy (-1.5%). For imports, the slight economic growth is a synthesis of differentiated dynamics, increasing for energy (+ 4.9%) and capital goods (+ 1.1%), decreasing for the remaining groups.
In the third quarter, compared to the previous one, exports grew by 3.4%; excluding energy (-8.2%), the increase concerns all groups and is more sustained for capital goods (+ 6.3%). In the same period, imports marked a conjunctural increase of 11.7%, to which the greater purchases of energy (+ 23.0%) contribute significantly.
In September 2022, exports grew on an annual basis by 26.9% (it was + 22.1% in August). The generalized growth is very accentuated for energy (+ 50.3%) and non-durable consumer goods (+ 33.3%). Imports recorded a trend growth of 62.3%, also widespread and very high for energy (+ 176.9%).
In September 2022, the trade deficit with non-EU countries was equal to -5,440 million, compared to a surplus of 1,063 million in the same month of 2021. The energy deficit reached, in absolute value, 12,096 million (it was equal to -4,034 million a year earlier) while the surplus in the trade of non-energy products increases from 5,096 million for September 2021 to 6,656 million for September 2022.
In the past month there were increases on an annual basis in exports to almost all the main partner countries outside the EU27; the largest ones concern Turkey (+ 49.7%), OPEC countries (+ 49.0%), the United States (+ 48.5%) and ASEAN countries (+ 35.1%). The contraction in exports to Russia is accentuated (-34.8%).
Purchases from OPEC countries (+ 112.0%), the United States (+ 90.1%) and Switzerland (+ 74.4%) recorded trend increases much larger than the average of imports from non-EU27 countries.
On the average of the third quarter of the year, therefore, the economic trend is positive. On an annual basis, Istat reiterates, export growth is accelerating again (+ 26.9%, it was + 22.1% in August), explained for over a third by higher sales of non-durable consumer goods. The growth in imports, always very sustained and conditioned by the energy component, slows down and returns to April levels, after the peak in August.
The energy deficit exceeds 12 billion in absolute value, but the surplus in the trade of non-energy products increases and the trade deficit (-5.440 million), albeit large, is reduced in comparison with August (it was -7.762 million).
In the first nine months of the year as a whole, the trade deficit with non-EU countries exceeds 28 billion, negatively affected by an energy deficit that touched 84 billion in the same period.
(aise)
