The race of Italian exports also continues in October, with an increase of 17.5% which represents the 20th consecutive month of growth, the twelfth in double digits.
Also in this month the clear difference between values and volumes is confirmed. The latter are decidedly less tonic (down by 2.7%) while the former (+20.8%) are relaunched by the continuous increases in price lists that companies are forced to due to increases in production factors, energy above all.
A step that progressively loses momentum in any case, as evidenced by the drop compared to the previous month, slowing down by 1.1%. The drop in the seasonally adjusted figure for imports is wider (-5.5%), an effect which is also visible in the annual comparison, where growth is 28.2%, 12 points less than in September. Partial slowdown in purchases from abroad which is linked to energy, in particular Russia.
The collapse in gas and crude oil purchases from Moscow causes our imports from the country to drop by 44%, thus producing a trade deficit of 710 million in the month, a third of the pace maintained on average in the first nine months of the year.
The good news also includes the partial recovery of the energy deficit, still at much higher levels than last year but at least down on the peaks reached in the summer. Expenditure to import energy in October was 11.5 billion, 3.1 billion less than the September figure (of which 2.3 billion for gas and 0.4 for crude oil). Thus, even if the energy deficit remains large (-8.8 billion) it is reduced in comparison with September (when it was -12 billion), with a consequent reduction of the overall trade deficit (-2 billion; it was -6.5 billion in September).