(AGENPARL) – lun 29 maggio 2023 April 2023
Foreign trade with non-EU countries
Data on Italy’s foreign trade with non-EU27 countries in April 2023 are preliminary. The results of the survey on total foreign trade in April 2023 will be disseminated on coming 16 June 2023.
In April 2023, exports to non-EU27 countries decreased by 5.1% and imports decreased by 19.5% compared with the same month of the previous year.
In April 2023, in seasonally adjusted terms, exports decreased by 2.1% and imports increased by 13.9% compared with March 2023. Over the last three months, seasonally adjusted data, compared with the previous three months, showed a 2.6% decrease in outgoing flows and a 13.4% decrease in incoming flows.
In April 2023 the trade balance with non-EU27 countries registered a surplus of 1,216 million euro compared to deficit of 2,711 million euro in April 2022; excluding energy, the surplus was equal to 7,054 million euro, up compared with a 6,575-million-euro surplus in April 2022.
CHART 1. TRADE FLOWS WITH NON–EU27 COUNTRIES AND TRADE BALANCESJanuary 2018 – April 2023, monthly import and export, 3 months moving average (left scale) and trade balances in billions of euros (right scale), seasonally adjusted data
CHART 2. TRADE FLOWS WITH NON–EU27 COUNTRIES, MONTH ON SAME MONTH A YEAR AGO PERCENTAGE CHANGES January 2019 – April 2023, non- seasonally adjusted data
TABLE 1. EXPORTS, IMPORTS AND TRADE BALANCE WITH NON-EU27 COUNTRIES
April 2023, months on same months a year ago and months on previous months percentage changes, trade balance in millions of euros
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED NON-SEASONALLY ADJUSTED
Millions of euros Months on previous months Millions of euros Months on same months a year ago
Apr. 2023 Apr. 23
Mar. 23 Feb.-Apr. 23
Nov. 22-Jan. 23 Apr. 2023 Jan.- Apr. 23 Apr. 23
Apr. 22 Jan.-Apr. 23
Jan.-Apr. 22
Exports +24,746 -2.1 -2.6 +22,425 +97,236 -5.1 +8.9
Imports +22,301 +13.9 -13.4 +21,209 +84,952 -19.5 -14.4
Trade balance +2,445 +1,216 +12,284 TABLE 2. EXPORTS, IMPORTS AND TRADE BALANCE WITH NON-EU27 COUNTRIES BY MAIN INDUSTRIAL GROUPINGS April 2023, shares, months on same months a year ago percentage changes, trade balance in millions of euros
MIGS EXPORTS IMPORTS TRADE BALANCES
Share
(a) Months on same months a year ago Share
(a) Months on same months a year ago Millions of euros
Apr. 23
Apr. 22 Jan.-Apr. 23
Jan.-Apr. 22 Apr. 23
Apr. 22 Jan.-Apr. 23
Jan.-Apr. 22 Apr. 2023 Jan.- Apr. 23
(a) Calculated on 2022 total foreign trade.
TABLE 3. EXPORTS, IMPORTS AND TRADE BALANCES WITH NON-EU27 COUNTRIES BY MAIN TRADE PARTNER
April 2023, shares, months on same months a year ago percentage changes for imports and exports and trade balance in millions of euros
COUNTRIES EXPORTS IMPORTS TRADE BALANCE
Share
(a) Months on same months a year ago Share
(a) Months on same months a year ago Millions of euros
Apr. 23
Apr. 22 Jan.-Apr. 23
Jan.-Apr. 22 Apr. 23
Apr. 22 Jan.-Apr. 23
Jan.-Apr. 22 Apr. 2023 Jan.- Apr. 23
Calculated on 2022 total foreign trade.lated on 2021 total foreign trade.
The preliminary United Kingdom data do not include Northern Ireland (see Methodological Note).
Data Sources and legal framework
The survey on international trade of goods with non-EU countries is carried out according to the following EU legislation: Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics; Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152; Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1704 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 by further specifying the details for the statistical information to be provided by tax and customs authorities and amending its Annexes V and VI; Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1225 specifying the arrangements for the data exchanges pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 and amending Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197, as regards the Member State of extra-Union export and the obligations of reporting units.
The Extrastat monthly survey is carried out processing fiscal-administrative data (Single Administrative Document – SAD) according to statistical definitions and classifications.
Since 2000, in accordance with the EU legislation, exports and imports below the exclusion thresholds (commercial transactions values less than 1.000 Euros, starting since 2010) are monthly included as aggregate data.
From 1 January 2021, the United Kingdom is no longer part of the customs and tax territory (VAT and excise duties) of the European Union and the economic relations between the two systems, after Brexit, are governed by the agreement reached between the parties on 24 December 2020. However, based on the provisions of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland – already annexed to the United Kingdom/EU Withdrawal Agreement – in order to avoid a physical border between the two Territories, Northern Ireland remains subject to EU VAT legislation for foreign trade in goods.
In terms of foreign trade data collection, this implies that from 1 January 2021 trade flows to and from Great Britain are derived from customs declarations (SAD), those to and from Northern Ireland from Intrastat declarations.
Given the different timing of receipt of the Intrastat and Extrastat sources, which does not make available Intrastat declarations at the time of the first publication of foreign trade data for non-EU countries, the preliminary data of the United Kingdom and, therefore, of the non-EU27 area, disseminated in this Press Release, do not include Northern Ireland data. These will be included in the non-EU foreign trade data on the occasion of the first review in the following month and dissemination in the Press Release Foreign trade and import prices.
Since September 2011, a new approach for the compilation of external trade statistics on natural gas in gaseous state and electricity has been implemented. Data on physical quantities are monthly collected from reliable sources, while for the other variables required by EU regulations (total trade in values and breakdown of volumes and values by partner countries) new estimation procedures have been developed.
Since December 2022, preliminary extra EU27 import data of natural gas in the gaseous state are estimated using quantity data (from Snam Rete Gas S.p.a) and price data (average unit value derived from customs declarations), reffering to the same reference month. This has been made possible thanks to the advance provision of declarations relating to this product by the Italian Customs Agency. It is recalled that, in compliance with the customs obligations on importation of natural gas by pipeline, the customs declarations lodged during the month refer to imports that took place in the previous month. The advance provision, by making the import declarations for the reference month available immediately, allows for more accurate preliminary estimates of import data for this product.
Data population and classifications system
In compliance with the EU Regulations, the main classifications used in foreign trade statistics are based on the elementary information concerning the type of goods, the statistical partner country and the province of origin or destination of the goods.
Trade of goods with non-EU countries is classified by country of origin for imports and country of destination for exports.
Geographical and the geo-economic areas are defined according to the Nomenclature of countries and territories for the external trade statistics of the Community and statistics of trade between Member States, known as Geonomenclature.
The Combined Nomenclature (CN) is the primary nomenclature for traded goods used by the EU Member States, defined by the European Union and annually updated.
Since January 2009, products aggregations are defined according to the classification of the economic activities Ateco 2007, adapted to foreign trade (CPA). Ateco 2007 is the national version of the European nomenclature NACE Rev. 2 published in the Official Journal on 2 December 2006 (Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20/12/2006). Ateco 2007 corresponds to Nace Rev. 2 up to the fourth digit. Data are released according to a timely intermediate breakdown of the sections.
In 2003, Istat adopted the classification for economic destination “Main Industrial Groupings (MIGS)”, defined by Commission Regulation n. 586/2001 (Official Journal of the European Communities of 27/03/2001), amended by Regulation (EC) no. 656/2007 of 14/06/2007 following the entry into force of Nace Rev. 2.
The Main Industrial Groupings (MIGS) are:
Consumer durables;
Consumer non-durables;
Capital goods;
Intermediate goods;
Energy.
As for Ateco 2007, the MIGS classification has been adapted to the statistics on foreign trade.
Data processing
Both raw and seasonally adjusted trade values are published. TRAMO-SEATS procedure for Linux (February 2010 version) provides seasonally adjusted data.
Since 2012, some substantial process and product innovations have been introduced in the seasonal adjustment procedures, aimed to improving the accuracy of the estimates and providing users with a wider detail of the statistical indicators at main industrial groupings level for the short-term analysis of foreign trade.
Seasonally adjusted data are monthly revised. The models are annually reviewed in November, with the final revision of raw data. The TRAMO-SEATS procedure’s specifications used by Istat are available to users under request.
In order to manage the discontinuities produced by the Covid-19 crisis on time series, from March 2020 onwards, series were seasonally adjusted following Eurostat guidelines, available in the web page Covid-19: Support for statisticians.
From March 2020 onwards, the extraordinary dynamics in extra-EU exports and imports were taken into account by adding additional regressors in the seasonal adjustment models, where statistically significant. With the release of October 2022 final data, the revision of the seasonal adjustment models was carried out.
Output
Data monthly released include monetary values, year-on-year and month-on-month variations of international trade in goods. Collected or estimated monetary statistical values (Cif, Fob) in current prices are reported.
Provisional data are released at approximately 25 days after the end of the reference month.
Confidentiality
Since 2000, Istat has defined new procedures for processing and dissemination of confidential data related to foreign trade in goods statistics, according to the current national regulatory framework (Law No. 675/96, Legislative Decrees N. 322/89, 281/99 and 196/03).
In particular, the new procedures bring to a significant reduction of the risk of identification, indirect and accidental, of confidential data and, at the same time, limiting the loss of information available for external users.