The Italian trade deficit with non-European Union countries widened in February to 1.128 billion euros (1.469 billion dollars), from 425 million euros 12 months earlier, data from the statistics office ISTAT showed on Wednesday.

Exports rose by 7.7 percent to 8.547 billion euros, while imports shot up by 15.7 percent to 9.675 billion.

Broken down by country, the data showed that Italy's traditional trade deficit with OPEC countries increased to 1.04 billion euros, with China it grew to 839 million, and with Russia it reached 529 million.

In the first two months of the year, the global deficit with non-EU states grew to 3.087 billion euros from 2.585 billion, as exports rose by 12.8 percent to 16.027 billion and imports increased by 13.8 percent to 19.114 billion.