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Home > ÖSTERREICH > Geschftsveranstaltungen
2006: A GOOD YEAR FOR 'MADE IN ITALY' PRODUCTS AS EXPORTS GROW BY 9%
Italy remains in the top ten list of exporting countries in the world as its products continue to be successful on the international markets. In 2006 exports of Italian goods grew by 9% in value, building on the 5,5% increase registered in 2005 and delivering the best result since 2000, when the value of exports jumped by 17,8%. The country seems therefore to have emerged from the post-September 11th recovery period of the last 5 years. In 2006, in particular, Italy benefited from the consistent rise in demand in emerging markets, especially in Asian and Eastern European countries, which has taken place in the last few years. The country still registers an overall trade deficit of 21.3 billion euros (9.4 billion in 2005), but excluding energy it boasts a 28,9 billion euros trade surplus, which has remained stable compared to 2005 (+29.2 billion euros).
However, the rate of growth of Italian exports appears below par compared to global trends: last year world exports grew by 15% in value and by 8% in terms of quantity. It's another effect of the relentless growth of emerging markets in the Far East, whose share of world trade has risen from 26.8% to 27.3%. At the same time, EU-25's share has squeezed from 38.7% to 37.6% and North America's from 12.2% to 11.9%. Italy's stats follow the general trend, even though its share of world's exports has only dropped by 2 decimals of a percentage point (from 3.6% in 2005 to 3.4% in 2006).
These are the main findings of the Foreign Trade 2006-2007 Report (www.ice.gov.it), published in Rome on the 17th July by the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) with the contribution of the Italian National Institute of Statistics (www.istat.it/english), the Bank of Italy (www.bancaditalia.it) and the Italian Foreign Exchange Office (www.uic.it ).
In 2006 Germany, France and the United States remained the main export destination for Made in Italy products, with a respective share of 13.1%, 11.7% and 7.5%. In terms of value, Italy exported 42.9 billion euros worth of goods to Germany, 38.2 billion euros to France and 24,7 billion euros to the US. In relative terms, the fastest growing markets for Italian goods were India (+29.3%), Russia (25.7%), China (+23.9%), Poland (+21.7%), Romania (+18.6%), Belgium (+16.8%) and Turkey (+9.9%). The positive trend displayed last year by Italian exports continued in the first four months of 2007, with a 13,3% growth compared to same period of 2006. At the same time imports grew by only 8.3%.
Italy's decline in world exports' share in 2006 - a positive year for global trade - was also influenced by exchange-rate factors: the rise of the euro against the dollar, even if quite slight, has reduced the competitiveness of Italian firms. At the same time Italian exports have been repositioned towards the high-end of the market, selling at a slightly higher price in exchange for Made in Italy products' trademark excellence in quality, taste and design. Over the past few years, therefore, while the euro has consistently appreciated against the dollar, the unit value of Italian exports has risen by more than industrial producer prices of goods for the domestic market.
A dual trend has therefore emerged. On one hand, an intense selection process has taken place, pushing those firms whose products offer a lower added value out of the exporting markets. On the other, the remaining exporting players, in order to defend themselves from competitors from the emerging markets, have shifted towards the higher end of the market, and, in some cases, relocated abroad the production lines for lower quality goods or adopted a 'light' business model, i.e. maintaining in Italy only the design and the overall management structure of the company, while transferring abroad and relying on external subcontractors for all other phases of production.
At the same time, the Italian entrepreneurial scene continues to be characterised by the conspicuous absence of 'big players', the existence of several middle-large firms and by the predominance of hundred of thousands of small-medium enterprises (Sme's). In 2006 the number of exporting firms grew by 2% to over 200,000. Yet over 60% of the total (122,129 firms out of 200,129) is made of so-called 'micro-exporters', i.e. companies with an annual turnover below 75,000 euros, which yet display a marked internationalising outlook. This spontaneous dynamism of individual firms, which to some extent is the basis of Italy's fortunes, will have to come to terms in the future with the need to turn a series of isolated initiatives into a coordinated export strategy at national level. As Emma Bonino, the minister for Foreign Trade, remarked, the limited size of its firms remains "a handicap" for Italy's competitiveness on the global trade markets.
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