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UPDATE 1-Italy's Jan trade deficit still high on energy, despite export growth

Kitco Media
By Reuters
Published:
Updated:
Reuters
(Adds details, background) March 17(Reuters) - Italy's trade deficit remained high in January despite significant export growth, as the energy deficit widened compared with the same period of last year, national statistics bureau ISTAT reported on Friday. Italy posted a trade deficit with the rest of the world of 4.194 billion euros ($4.45 billion) in January, in value terms, compared with a deficit of 6.520 billion euros in the same month of 2022. The energy deficit increased slightly to 7.76 billion euros from a reading of 7.615 billion in the same month of 2022.


Excluding energy, January saw a trade surplus of 3.566 billion euros, up from 1.095 billion the year before, ISTAT said in a note.


On a month-on-month basis, imports saw a 3.2% drop, the biggest since the start of the series in 2005, due to a strong decline in the cost of energy products.


Compared with the same month of 2022, exports rose 15.3% in value terms and 2.4% in volumes.


The increase in volumes was driven by energy and non-durable consumer goods which rose 8.5% and 14.6% respectively.


In value terms Italy saw a surge in exports to China, which grew 137.5% year-on-year, partly due to strong sales of pharmaceutical, chemical-medicinal and botanical goods. Exports also rose significantly towards Turkey, with a jump of 48.2%.
($1 = 0.9416 euros) (Reporting by Luca Fratangelo, Romolo Tosiani, Chiara Bontacchio editing by Gavin Jones)

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