Regional contributions to Italy's export recovery in 2014 show clear divide between north, south

Italian regions contributed differently to Italy's export recovery in 2014, confirming a clear divide in the economic performance between the north and south of the country, a recent report based on official data showed.

Italy's sales abroad increased by 2 percent last year compared to 2013, reaching some 398 billion euros (432.9 billion U.S. dollars), the National Institute for Statistics (ISTAT) stated.

This result was mainly due to the good performance of northern and central regions, whereas southern Italy registered on the whole a significant contraction, a report Bologna-based economic think-tank Prometeia released on March 24th noted.

With the exception of the central Umbria region, which posted a 5.7 percent decrease, "northern and central Italian regions experienced positive changes everywhere, while export in the south suffered a 4.7 percent contraction despite an export increase in some regions," the report said.

Southern Italy already showed an overall 8.5 percent export decrease in 2013.

Emilia Romagna was among the best-performing northern regions with a 4.3 rise in export, mainly due to transport equipment, textiles and clothing, plastic materials, and nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing.

Northwestern Piedmont and northeastern Veneto posted a 3.3 percent and 2.7 percent increase, respectively.

The Lombardy region, usually considered as Italy's main economic engine, posted a 1.4 percent increase. The result, though quite modest, was positive if considering its export stagnation in 2013, the report said.

All these four regions benefited largely from an average 10 percent increase in the demand from the United States, which was also driven by the depreciation of the U.S. dollar against euro, according to Prometeia report.

Overall, the small Marche region in central Italy showed one of the best performances with a 7.5 percent export rose last year.

This very positive result is to be attributed almost entirely to inter-company transactions in pharmaceuticals industry," the report said.

The Northwestern Liguria region as well posted a relevant 10.2 percent export increase.

In this case, the result was due to "an extraordinary trend in the machinery and transport equipment sectors, and a special success in African and Asian markets at the expenses of the old continent (Europe)".

The Southern Italy offered a very different scenario, despite some regions such as Basilicata and Molise did post a growth in their sales abroad.

Southern Sicily and Sardinia were the major contributors to this negative performance, with a 13.9 percent and 13.6 percent decrease in export respectively.

Here the dynamic regarding oil products, both in terms of prices and markets, was considered as a main factor.

"Oil products account for 67 percent of the whole Sicilian exports. A collapse in the demand from major trading partners such as Turkey, France, Libya, and the United States added to the effect of falling oil products prices," Prometeia paper explained.

A similar trend was noticed in the Sardinia region, where oil products account for 80 percent of export.

Food industry only seemed to boost southern Italian regions and their international trade: their sales abroad in this sector grew in fact by 4 percent. Endit