Istat certifies that on an annual basis, in the January-March 2024 quarter, Italian exports are traveling with the handbrake on, recording -2.8%, but with a large differentiation on a territorial basis. The Islands (+8.9%) and the South (+4.3%) are soaring, while the rest of the country is declining. The downward peak is concentrated in the Center (-10.4%), but the North-West (-3.4%) and the North-East (-2.4%) are also doing badly, with some significant exceptions. He writes it today “Here Finance”.
The Southern Regions and the Islands – we read – are experiencing growth justified by the greater sales of pharmaceutical products (Campania), refining derivatives (Sicily and Sardinia) and exports of motor vehicles (Abruzzo). The Central Regions are in a nosedive due to the collapse in exports of pharmaceutical products sold from the Marche to China. This is an effect derived from the comparison with the first quarter of 2023, when exceptional sales of these products towards the East were recorded. This decline is worth -2.8 percentage points on the decline in national exports. In contrast, Tuscany experiences strong exports to Turkey due to significant sales of small parts and precious metals. In general, -1.2 points derive from lower exports of base metals and metal products, excluding machinery and plants from Lombardy, Veneto and Lazio and leather goods from Tuscany and Lombardy. In the North-West, Friuli-Venezia Giulia bucks the downward trend thanks to sales of vessels to the United States.
The +1.3% resulting from the increase in sales of sporting goods, games, musical instruments, jewellery, medical instruments and other products from Tuscany, but also of means of transport (excluding cars) from Friuli, has an impact on the formation of the national average -Venezia Giulia. The largest negative contributions at national level on an annual basis concern exports from the Marche to China (-97.1%) and Belgium (-74.6%), that from Tuscany to Switzerland (-67.5%) and that from Lombardy to Germany (-10.1%), the United States (-9.2%), France (-6.6%) and the Netherlands (-13.6%).
The most significant positive contributions to exports on an annual basis concern the increase in traffic from Tuscany to Turkey (+234.3%), the United States (+49.7%) and OPEC countries (+33.1%) and the increase in traffic from Friuli-Venezia Giulia to the United States (+250.5%). Excluding the annual basis and restricting the objective to only the months of January, February and March 2024, the situation is as follows: a cyclical growth in exports is estimated for the Center (+1.0%), a limited decline for the North- East (-0.9%) and a larger contraction for the North-West (-3.5%) and the South and Islands (-4.1%).
