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Istat data for April

Pharmaceuticals boost Made in Italy

On average +0.4%, with pharma up 30 points. Sector also pushing up imports in purchases (+77%).

by Luca Orlando

3' min read

3' min read

It is pharmaceuticals that decisively influenced the averages of our foreign trade in April, both incoming and outgoing. The average growth for the month of Made in Italy, up by 0.4%, was in fact affected by the rise of over 30 points in pharmaceuticals and chemical medicinal preparations, which were sold in the month for 5.7 billion euro. This figure is similar to that of imports, which grew by over 70% due to massive purchases from China and the United States in particular.

In general, while Europe advanced by two points, non-EU markets declined, with reductions in the UK, US and China in particular.

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Compared to March, the Made in Italy sector is down by 2.8%. This drop, which like the modest trend growth in exports, is conditioned by the high-impact sales of seagoing craft recorded in March 2025 and April 2024: net of these, Istat estimates a smaller economic downturn (-0.6%) and more sustained trend growth (+1.7%).

In detail

In April 2025, exports (-2.8%) and imports (+0.3%) are estimated to have declined at a monthly rate. The month-on-month decrease in exports is due to the large drop in sales to the non-EU area (-7.0%), while exports to the EU area grow by 1.5%.

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In the quarter February-April 2025, compared to the previous quarter, exports grew by 3.1%, imports by 2.9%.

In April 2025, exports grew year-on-year by 0.4 % in monetary terms while decreasing by 3.7 % in volume terms. The modest trend growth of exports in value terms is the result of an increase for EU markets (+2.1%) and a contraction for non-EU markets (-1.4%). Imports recorded a trend growth of 5.4% in value, which involved the non-EU area (+11.5%) to a much greater extent than the EU area (+0.8%); in volume, imports grew by 1.4%.

On an annual basis, the sectors that contribute most to supporting domestic exports include: pharmaceutical, chemical-medical and botanical articles (+30.1%), basic metals and metal products, excluding machinery and equipment (+5.5%) and food, beverages and tobacco (+4.6%). On the other hand, the largest negative contributions came from declines in sales of transport equipment excluding motor vehicles (-17.1%), coke and refined petroleum products (-31.1%), sporting goods, games, musical instruments, jewellery, medical instruments and other products not elsewhere classified (n.e.c.) (-12.0%) and motor vehicles (-9.3%).

On an annual basis, Switzerland (+18.9%) and Spain (+14.3%) provide the largest positive contributions to national exports. On the other hand, the United Kingdom (-18.8%), Turkey (-18.2%) and the Netherlands (-8.7%) made the largest negative contributions.

In the period January-April 2025, exports recorded a trend increase of 2.5%, contributed mainly by higher sales of pharmaceutical, chemical-medical and botanical articles (+38.7%), transport equipment, excluding motor vehicles (+10.3%), basic metals and metal products, excluding machinery and equipment (+5.8%) and food, beverages and tobacco (+5.3%). In contrast, negative contributions came from lower exports of coke and refined petroleum products (-28.1%) and motor vehicles (-11.6%).

The trade balance in April 2025 is +2,482 million (it was +4,829 million in the same month of 2024). The energy deficit (-4,248 million) is higher than a year earlier (-3,787 million). The surplus in non-energy trade is reduced from 8,617 million in April 2024 to 6,730 million in April 2025.

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