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The National Institute of Statistics reported on Tuesday that Italian exports stood at €59.8 billion in June. This represented a 9.8 percent increase from the same month a year earlier and a 1.6 percent rise compared with May. Imports grew at a faster 13.2 percent year-on-year pace, producing a trade surplus of €4.232 billion against €5.384 billion recorded 12 months previously.
According to the ISTAT data, the strongest sector gains occurred in coke and refined petroleum products, which climbed 45.1 percent. Base metals and fabricated metal products rose 25.8 percent, motor vehicles advanced 17.0 percent and other transport equipment excluding motor vehicles increased 13.3 percent. Exports expanded most sharply to Germany by 22.9 percent, the Netherlands by 22.4 percent and France by 6.8 percent, while shipments to the United Kingdom declined 8.5 percent.
The June performance helped lift Italian exports for the first half of 2026 by 4.5 percent overall, separate trade compilations show. This acceleration follows the full-year 2025 total of 643.2 billion euros in exports, a 3.3 percent gain from 2024 according to a Coface assessment. The Coface report placed the 2025 trade surplus at around 51 billion euros, up 5 percent on the year before.
A Coface assessment of Italian exports found the pharmaceutical sector recorded 28.5 percent growth in 2025, driven by higher sales to the United States along with increases to France and Spain. Metals advanced 9.8 percent, food gained 4.3 percent and transport equipment rose 4.1 percent that year. The assessment noted that the automotive sector continued to face difficulties from weak demand, particularly in the United States, while textiles, clothing and footwear fell 1.9 percent and machinery along with electrical equipment stayed broadly stable.
The Coface report warned that 2026 is set to remain challenging due to weak growth among Italy’s main European partners, ongoing trade tensions and geopolitical uncertainty that has driven up energy and certain raw material prices. Such conditions follow a period in which Italian exports demonstrated resilience despite global headwinds. The National Institute of Statistics data for June adds to the picture of uneven but positive momentum across product categories.
An Italian government action plan issued in April 2025 for focus on Asia identified India as an emerging market with strong potential for computers, electronics, machinery and chemicals. The plan indicated Italian exports to the Asia-Pacific region had grown by 1 percent in the preceding period compared with the prior year. The document positioned these markets as important for sustaining longer-term export expansion.
