Italy's non-EU trade goes into surplus in December

(ROME) - Italy enjoyed a trade surplus of 1.26 billion euros with its partners outside the European Union in December compared with a 66 million euro deficit a year earlier, official figures showed Wednesday.

The national statistics agency ISTAT said imports fell back more severely than exports to produce the surplus.

Imports fell 16.4 percent over December 2008 while exports decreased by 5.7 percent, ISTAT said in a communique.

Last year overall saw a contraction of 18.2 percent in exports compared with 2008, while imports were down 26.9 percent.

Italy's trade deficit with non-EU partners was 2.32 billion euros (3.26 billion dollars) for the year, a fraction of the 21.42 billion euro deficit of 2008.

Exports fell off in all sectors except pharmaceuticals, medicines and plants.

Italy imported less across the board in December compared with a year earlier, but notably imports were down 28 percent from Japan, 23.4 percent from members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, 21 percent from China, 20.4 percent from Brazil and 19.4 percent from the United States.

Imports from Mexico however were up 17.8 percent, from Turkey 15.9 percent and from India 9.7 percent.

Exports meanwhile jumped 40.3 percent to Turkey, rising also to Brazil (23.3 percent), India (21.6 percent), China (17.5 percent), South Africa (14.2 percent) and Switzerland (10.8 percent).

Sales of Italian goods to Russia plummeted 32.1 percent and were down 27.5 percent to Mexico and 22.9 percent to the United States.