Italy's trade deficit outside the European Union improved in October and was also lower for the first ten months of the year, compared to periods last year, national statistics bureau Istat reported on Thursday.
In October, the traded deficit outside the EU stood at 313 million euros, compared to 1.21 billion euros in October 2006.
The deficit was the result of a 16.4% jump in exports, which was more than double the 8.1% increase in imports.
This was the ninth month in a row that increases in exports outpaced those for imports, Istat pointed out.
Italy's trade deficit outside the EU for the first ten months of the year was 13.5 billion euros, an improvement over the 19.9 billion-euro deficit for the same period in 2006.
Italy's imports of oil and gas were responsible for the deficit.
Excluding these factors Italy would have had a trade surplus of some 25.8 billion euros for the first ten months of the year.
