MILAN, Oct 1 – Italy halved the deficit on non-EU trade in August, official data showed on Thursday as all trade and mainly imports plunged amid deep recession in the economy here.
And the deficit so far this year also showed a big reduction.
Italy depends heavily on exports by its diversified manufacturing sector.
The data from the statistics office Istat showed that in August a deficit on the trade balance fell to 969 million euros (1.4 billion dollars) in August from 2.091 billion euros in July.
However, the reduction reflected a 30-percent slump in imports. Exports fell by 25.2 percent.
In the first eight months of the year, the trade balance with countries outside the European Union showed a cumulative deficit of 3.166 billion euros, one fifth of the figure of 16.484 billion euros for the same period last year.
