by Stefania Fumo

ROME, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Italian exports fell in December 2018 and public debt rose in 2018, ISTAT national statistics agency and the Bank of Italy reported Friday.

Italian exports fell on a monthly basis in December 2018 (-2.3 percent compared to the previous month), as well as on yearly basis, dropping by 2.7 percent compared to the same month of 2017.

"Italy has an export-based economy -- we have entire sectors that are dedicated to exports," ISTAT analyst Valerio De Santis told Xinhua. "Slowdowns can be due to many reasons, including problems related to political crises, but the numbers can be quite volatile," he added.

The month-on-month fall was due to "a significant decrease in sales to non-EU foreign markets (-5.6 percent)" while on a yearly basis, the drop was due to both non-EU markets (-5.1 percent) as well as EU markets (-0.3 percent), ISTAT said.

The countries that most contributed to the drop in exports on a yearly basis were Turkey (-32.9 percent), China (-15.2 percent), the United States (-5.7 percent), and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) area (-8.3 percent), according to ISTAT.

The institute also pointed to a yearly rise in exports to France (+5.1 percent) and Switzerland (+7.5 percent).

The sectors that posted the worst foreign sales numbers on an annual basis include pharmaceuticals (-21.8 percent), transportation vehicles (-17.1 percent), and food, beverages and tobacco (-3.8 percent). These were offset by rises in exports of machinery and equipment (+2 percent) and apparel (+3.2 percent).

Also in December, imports were down by 1 percent compared to the previous month, but added 1.4 percent on a yearly basis, "driven by a strong increase in purchases from non-EU countries (+8.1 percent)," ISTAT analysts wrote.

Also on Friday, the Bank of Italy reported that public debt rose by 53.2 billion euros (60.11 billion U.S. dollars), from 2.2635 trillion euros or 131.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of 2017 to 2.3167 trillion euros at the end of 2018.

The debt increase was racked up by Italy's central administration (+54.7 billion euros), while regional and local governments cut debt by 1.5 billion euros, the central bank explained.

"The overall effect of spreads and of premiums at issue and redemption, of the revaluation of inflation-linked securities and the variation in exchange rates has increased the debt by 6.8 billion euros," the Bank of Italy added in a brief statement.

The data will be analysed in-depth in the Bank of Italy's next Economic Bulletin, to be published in April, the central bank said. (1 euro=1.13 U.S. dollars) Enditem

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