More specifically, and extending the comparison also to the preceding months, we notice a pro-gressive rise in imports, which closed the first half of the year up by +8%. This improvement can (we hope) partly be ascribed to the - albeit limited - stimulus measures enacted by the Italian government. Exports, on the other hand, though still comfortably positive, reveal a slight slowdown if we compare the +6.4% of June with the preceding months (+8.6% in May, +8.3% in April, and +8.9% in March). Looking at the most significant equipment categories, we notice in particular the twenty-percentage-point rise in imports of flexographic printers and injection moulding machines. On the export side, we note the +6% rise for extruders (which account for over 11% of the to-tal), and also the strong performance of blow moulding machines (+16%) and flexographic printers, which continue to account for a considerable share of Italian exports in this sector. Finally, a separate mention goes to moulds, which account for the largest slice of Italian exports, and often contribute to sustaining them, with over 95 million euros worth going to Germany. The ranking of the top export destinations doesn’t show any major changes compared to the first half of 2013.

• Europe (60% of the total; more specifically, the EU accounts for 47%) +4.6%
• Americas (18% of the total): +3.7%, driven by the considerable recovery of sales to NAFTA countries, which amply counterbalanced the slowdown of South America, affected by falling sales to Brazil
• Asia (17%): +24.7%. Also in this case, the balance was tipped by China, but exports toward India and Indonesia also performed well. The Asia area also includes the Middle East, where we note the positive performance of sales toward Saudi Arabia
• Africa (around 5% of the total): after a phase of relative expansion, the African continent is now seeing a slowdown, made worse in particular by the decline in sales to the markets of the Sub-Saharan quadrant.