In 2009, Italy had a national trade deficit of 4.1 billion euro, which was much lower than the deficit of 2008. Italian exports declined on a yearly basis by 20.7% due to a sharp fall in exports to EU countries and a slightly milder one to non-EU countries.
In 2009, Veneto was still the second Italian region for overall exports, equal to 13.2% of the national total. The cycle pattern in the last few quarters exhibited a significant contraction in regional exports in the first quarter, followed by moderate growth in the second quarter compared to the first following a recovery in world trade.
The geographic pattern of Veneto exports has changed slightly in favour of the EU27 area; this runs counter to trends in the previous years. Exports towards East Asia and North Africa have also risen.
An analysis of the pattern of exports by economic sector shows that the decline in regional sales concerned most of the main industries, with reductions of over 20% in metal products, mechanical goods, electrical appliances and vehicles. The sectors which suffered least as a consequence of the economic crisis are the food industry and the electronics sector. Fashion, the leading sector in Veneto exports, had a reduction in foreign sales of about 17 percentage points.
In 2009, Veneto imported goods for about 30 billion euro, approximately 10% of national imports, with a 20.4% decrease compared to 2008. The most imported products were vehicles, fashion goods, metals and food. The slump concerned the main sectors of regional imports and the slowdown was particularly marked in metal products, mechanical goods and vehicles.
(Chapter 7 in figures)