Italy's foreign trade picked up in June compared to May, with imports rising by 16.1 per cent and exports by 14.4 per cent, the National Statistics Institute (ISTAT) has said in a report.
The month-on-month rise in exports was due to a higher volume of sales to both non-European Union (EU) markets (up 15.6 per cent) and towards the EU (up 13.3 per cent), the report said on Friday.
The ISTAT said that the imports grew by 14 per cent for EU countries and by 19.2 per cent for non-EU countries in the same period, reports Xinhua.
"The month-on-month recovery, which started in May, is consolidating," ISTAT analysts wrote, adding that imports "posted a new and significant increase (in June) compared to the previous month, due especially to the recovery in purchases from the non-EU market."
However, despite growing foreign trade in May and June, the second quarter of the year posted a "significantly negative" volume of trade compared to the first quarter.
This was the case both for exports (down 24.8 per cent) and imports (down 21.8 per cent), ISTAT pointed out.
Compared to the same period last year, June exports dropped by 12.1 per cent and imports were down by 15.6 per cent, the report said.
On a yearly basis, the biggest drops in exports were to the US (down 22.4 per cent), Spain (down 21.7 per cent), France (down 9.7 per cent), the UK (down 11.2 per cent), and the OPEC countries (down 17.1 per cent).
Outgoing flows to China dropped by 3.3 per cent while imports from China increased by 24.3 per cent in June 2020 compared to the same month last year, ISTAT said.
Bucking the trend were sales to Switzerland (up 4.7 per cent), Belgium (up 7.5 per cent), and Japan (up 8.1 per cent).