Italia exports: double-digit growth in China, Switzerland, USA and India. Slowdown in the Middle East
Istat records a leap of 11.3%. Down seven points in the Middle East. Sales touch 28 billion euro in the month, almost three more than in April 2025
by Luca Orlando
April on the upswing for extra-EU exports, which grew by 11.3% with progress visible in almost all geographical areas. Double-digit growth is seen in the United States and India, but the percentages exceed 30% for China and Switzerland. Sales were close to EUR 28 billion for the month, almost three billion more than in April 2025.
Among the few areas bucking the trend (in addition to Turkey, penalised by the gold rush last year, and the United Kingdom) is the Middle East, which saw a slowdown of almost 7 points. Decidedly less, however, than the slump experienced in March, the first month after the US and Israeli attack on Iran. In any case, the 'price' of the war is evident and in the first four months the drop towards the area is 16 percentage points, in absolute value a reduction of 1.3 billion, concentrated mainly in March and partly in April.
In macro-sector terms, the year-on-year growth in exports to non-EU27 markets was due to increases in energy sales (+34.9%), intermediate goods (+22.0%), capital goods (+11.1%) and non-durable consumer goods (+5.7%); only exports of consumer durables declined year-on-year (-10.2%).
Imports recorded a trend increase of 5.8%, contributed mainly by higher purchases of energy (+28.1%, with purchases from Opec countries growing by more than 50%) and intermediate goods (+16.1%).
The balance of the first four months of the year, which was completely unexpected in light of the complicated situation across the border, thus sees a 3.7% increase in the Made in Italy sector, which in absolute terms translates into almost four billion euro more in receipts for Italian companies.
