ROME, July 16: The Italian trade balance showed a surplus of 1.008 billion euros in May from a deficit of 2.2 billion euros 12 months earlier, official data showed on Monday.

Positive trends were seen in other peripheral eurozone countries as well, leading one analyst to underscore the importance of trade in helping them to pull out of crisis.

In Italy, exports rose by 4.8 per cent, pulled by sales of energy products which rose by 22.4 per cent and imports fell by 4.5 per cent owing to weak internal demand. The sales of energy products concerned particularly a 21.6-per cent rise in refined products to Opec oil producing countries and to Turkey. Italy is in the process of enacting deep reforms to put over-stretched public finances on a sustainable basis and to restructure the economy to raise competitiveness.

Now, “external demand needs to offset some of the hit to domestic demand.

Fortunately, the trade data for the eurozone shows that,” said Christian Schulz, an economist at Berenberg Bank Italian exports outside the European Union rose by 14.1 per cent.—AFP