Drug exports to the US boom in anticipation of possible tariffs
Istat data: +5.8% for the month, Europe also ahead. Progress of over three points in the first quarter.
by Luca Orlando
3' min read
3' min read
Ships and pharmaceuticals. It was these two sectors that pushed up exports to the United States in March, growing by over 41%. Added to the preliminary data are now the ISTAT sectoral surveys which see in transport equipment (here there are one-off orders for ships) data up by 180%. If here, however, we are dealing with spot, non-repeatable orders, the bullish effect can certainly be seen in the maxi-shipments of pharmaceuticals to Washingron, which almost tripled in the month to EUR 1.9 billion, almost a third of the total shipped worldwide in this category.
Another likely 'anticipatory' choice was in the food sector, with growth of 10.3%, which is a few points above the sector's ordinary progress. Elsewhere in reality, the duty effect is hardly visible and in fact, net of ships and pharmaceuticals, Istat explains, exports to the USA in the month would fall by 4.1%.
In any case, this boost is important to bring up the average, which in the month sees a 5.8% progress for Italian products, with 3.7% growth in EU markets (for Germany +1.5%) and 8.2% in non-EU markets.
The balance for the first quarter is thus broadly positive, a 3.2% increase that, if confirmed in the rest of the year, would take Italian products to a new historical record over EUR 640 billion.
In detail
.In March 2025, exports are estimated to have decreased slightly (-1.0%) and imports are estimated to have remained essentially stable (+0.2%). The month-on-month decrease in exports is due to lower sales to the EU area (-5.0%), while exports to the non-EU area grow by 3.3%.
