In April 2025, Italy’s foreign trade performance showed signs of weakening, mainly due to extraordinary maritime sales recorded in previous months. According to ISTAT, exports fell by 2.8% month-on-month, while imports edged up 0.3%.
Stripping out the impact of large marine vessel sales registered in March 2025 and April 2024, the monthly drop in exports would have been much smaller (-0.6%) and the annual growth stronger (+1.7%).
On an annual basis, exports rose by 0.4% in value but fell 3.7% in volume, while imports increased 5.4% in value and 1.4% in volume. In the first four months of 2025, exports grew by 2.5% compared to the same period in 2024, though the trade surplus narrowed to €11.3 billion, down from €17.6 billion a year earlier.
Sector-wise, pharmaceuticals remain the key growth driver, with exports up 30.1% year-on-year (mainly to the US, Switzerland, Spain, and France) and imports up 76.9% (primarily from China and the US). By contrast, sales of transport equipment excluding motor vehicles dropped 17.1%, refined petroleum products fell 31.1%, and car exports declined 9.3%.
Among destination countries, Switzerland (+18.9%) and Spain (+14.3%) provided the largest positive contributions to export growth, while the UK (-18.8%), Turkey (-18.2%) and the Netherlands (-8.7%) weighed negatively.
Italy’s trade balance for April stood at +€2.48 billion, lower than the +€4.83 billion surplus recorded a year earlier. The energy trade deficit widened to -€4.25 billion (from -€3.79 billion). Meanwhile, the non-energy surplus shrank to €6.73 billion from €8.62 billion a year ago.
Import prices continued to decline, dropping 1.2% month-on-month and 1.5% year-on-year, driven primarily by falling energy prices.