Italian foreign trade: 2021 scores noteworthy growths for household appliances

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In the past year, Italian white goods conquered the USA, and not only: relevant growth data for the last year of import and export of household appliances and electronic consumer products.

We present Istat data concerning the Italian export and import of white goods and consumer electronics. The first do not include non-electric, gas, liquid or solid fuel household appliances; on the contrary, mixed, or partially electric ones, are included. Tablets and smartphones are excluded from second ones. Istat has reviewed classification criteria and this has made the review of 2020-data mandatory.

Export
Italy has been, traditionally for various decades, an outstanding exporter of white goods and a modest exporter for brown goods. In the first, it ranked second for a long time in Europe, after Germany, and just in 2020 Poland succeeded in surpassing it. It is not known whether the situation changed in 2021 because Polish data are still missing.
After some years of stagnation, in 2021 the Italian export of white goods took on new life with a growth by as much as 21%: the rise in value is only very partially due to prices, since the growth in quantity was equal to 17%. Almost all destinations feature a growth; France surpassed Germany again, recovering the first place, whereas the Italian product aroused a surprising success in the USA market. Finally, Belgium, irrelevant in the past, reached the 3% incidence.
The export of brown goods grew by 3.1% in value, but by 8% in quantity: this shows a tendency of exporting products at low price. Among destinations, The Netherlands and USA are rising, whereas the after-Brexit Great Britain is dropping.

Import
The import of white goods grew by 22.4% in value and by 21.2% in quantity. Therefore, the growth is real, with essentially constant prices. China, Romania, Turkey and Poland more and more are asserting themselves as origins, to the detriment of the historical Germany and Hungary.
The import of brown goods grew by 23.6% in value and by 25.3% in quantity, confirming the trend towards low-price products.
Among proveniences, Poland and The Netherlands stand out and replace the historical Germany, Hungary and Czech Republic.