2014, a mixed year for Italian exports

In February, both Japanese Customs and Eurostat have published the complete results for the bilateral trade between Japan and Italy. The data from Japanese Customs reveal that overall imports from Italy have decreased 2.1% in value, with 911 billion yen; Eurostat data instead show a decrease of about 11% for export values from Italy, expressed in Euro (about 5.4 billion).

As already expected, last year VAT increase and weak yen influenced to some extent the negative trend registered in the second semester. This may have been the primary cause for the loss recorded in the fashion sector, in the case of Italy typically reliant on mid-high priced goods, or olive oil, whose imports are losing steam compared to the cheaper Spanish offer.

However, more than this must have occurred, since these two factors alone do not account for the increase in imports from other European countries, such as Spain, France and Germany. Beside the aforementioned macroeconomic effects, it is clear that specific industries have suffered more than usual, driving down the total results.

Exemplary is the case of pharmaceutical goods, which saw a loss in value of around 500 million euro, nearly half the total value for that sector in 2013 (€ 1.173.515.292) and accounting for an astounding 75% of the overall loss in exports as seen by Eurostat (€ 5.363.646.888 in 2014 vs  € 6.022.743.886 in 2013). This loss is to be compared by the gain reported for Germany (10% to € 1.792.866.202) and other EU countries.