(Finance) – “The non-EU markets are watching and maintaining a cautious attitude awaiting the election results in key markets for Made in Italy products such as the United States and the United Kingdom, respectively the second and sixth destination countries for Italian exports in 2023. Note the positive signal coming from the USA regarding the encouraging reversal of the trend for agri-food products, which grew by 18.2% between January and April 2024. Even wine, which experienced a moment of extreme uncertainty and concern on the part of Italian producers for the results of 2023, recorded a stability at +0.5% between January and April 2024; a figure that is not yet fully positive and that gives breathing space to one of the most strategic sectors of Made in Italy agri-food in the United States”.
This is the comment of the President of ICE Agency, Matthew Zoppas, regarding the non-EU export data for May 2024 released today by Istat. “The continuation of the geopolitical tensions which continue to impact credit markets and the logistics and movement of goods. A further element of attention concerns the effects of the possible introduction of duties which could significantly affect trade in intermediate goods in the coming months. In May 2024, exports to non-EU countries decreased by -2.3% compared to the previous month but remained +0.1% compared to a year ago, thanks to the growth in sales of durable consumer goods and not, respectively at +28.2% and +7.3%, which was counterbalanced by the sharp decline in capital goods (-11%)”.
The further growth should be noted in the annual comparison of exports to Turkey (+29.4%) followed by the countries of the South American area (+9.6%); the substantial stability of the United Kingdom (+2.1%), OPEC (+1.2%) and the United States (-0.3%) accompanied, however, by the decline in sales in Switzerland (-11.4%), Japan ( -4.3%), countries in the South-East Asia area (-4.2%) and China (-3.2%). The trade balance is good, confirming itself as largely positive in the first 5 months of the year, to 26.5 billion, more than double the 12.5 billion of the same period in 2023.”