Italy's foreign trade surplus turned to a surplus in February from a year ago, as exports grew more rapidly than imports, data from the statistical office Istat showed on Tuesday.
The trade balance for February came in at a surplus of EUR 2.108 billion versus a deficit of EUR 1.475 billion in the corresponding month last year. In January, there was a shortfall of EUR 4.24 billion.
Exports grew 10.8 percent year-over-year in February, following a 15.5 percent gain in the previous month.
Outgoing flows to EU countries increased by 5.5 percent, and those to non-EU countries advanced more sharply by 17.2 percent.
Exports of pharmaceutical, chemical-medicinal, and botanical items grew the most by 51.3 percent annually in February, and those of machinery and equipment increased by 12.7 percent.
Meanwhile, the annual growth in imports eased to 3.1 percent from 8.6 percent in the previous month.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, exports rose 0.4 percent monthly in February. At the same time, imports continued their falling trend for the sixth straight month, falling by 1.4 percent. As a result, the trade surplus increased to EUR 2.94 billion from EUR 1.99 billion in January.
Data also showed that import prices decreased 1.7 percent monthly, while they grew 1.3 percent on an annual basis in February.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
