Mar. 12 – In the fourth quarter of 2013, compared with the preceding three months, sales of goods in foreign markets from western, north-eastern and central Italy are following a downwards trend (-1%, -0.6 % respectively), while the southern and island regions witnessed a significant expansion (+4.1%). This is what emerges from the ISTAT report on Italian foreign trade. However, in 2013, the substantial stability of national exports (-0.1%) is the synthesis of divergent spatial dynamics. North-eastern Italy recorded a significant growth (+2.4%) followed by a smaller increase in north-western Italy (+0.6%). The islands plummeted (-15.0 %), followed by the South (-4.1%), and to a smaller extent the Center (-0.7 %). Net of refined petroleum products, the decline in exports for the South and Islands reduced overall by 5.5 percentage points, reassessing itself at -8.7% to -3.2%. In 2013, the increase in vehicle exports from Piedmont, in pharmaceuticals articles, medicinal chemical and botanical products from Lazio and Marche, and in machinery and equipment in Emilia -Romagna gives a positive impulse to Italian sales in foreign markets. During the same period, the decline in sales of basic metals and fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment, from Tuscany and Lombardy, and of refined petroleum products from Sicily, Sardinia and Lazio curbed national exports. In 2013, Piedmont (+3.8%), Veneto (+2.8%), Emilia -Romagna (+2.6%) and Marche (+12.3%) are the regions that contributed to support national exports, with positive trends registered also in Bolzano (+4.8%), Campania (+1.8%) and Trento (+1.1%). Lombardy is substantially stationary; while Sicily (-14.8 %), Tuscany (-3.6%), Sardinia (-15.5 %), Puglia (-10.4%) and Liguria (-6.2%) contributed to the contraction alongside Lazio (-1.6%), Umbria (-7.2%), Abruzzo (-2.4 %), Basilicata (-12.3%), Molise (-10.2%) and Calabria (-7.0 %).
