Italy posts first trade surplus since 2002, magnified by import plunge

ITALIAN exports rose 4.3 per cent in the first 11 months of 2012 driven by sales to non-EU countries as imports fell 5.6 per cent year on year, according to the state statistics office, Istat.

Thus, Italy will post a EUR10 billion (US$13.3 billion) trade surplus for 2012, reversing a decade of deficits, Reuters reports.

"It's a result we haven't reached in about 10 years," Industry Minister Corrado Passera said at a trade event to promote exports.

But the reversal was largely because cash-strapped Italians cut back on buying imported goods, say analysts. "This is a fake surplus, because it's mainly due to the incredibly sharp drop in internal consumption," said economist Claudio Borghi Aquilini.

Yet rising exports helped offset a slump in domestic demand in Italy although the euro zone's third-biggest economy remains in recession.

Said Prime Minister Mario Monti: "If it weren't for exports, our country, which must meet a large bill for energy imports, would be in a very delicate and much weaker financial situation."