The analysis by Assocomaplast, the Italian trade association, belonging to CONFINDUSTRIA, which groups together some 160 manufacturers of plastics and rubber processing machinery) of the latest ISTAT, the Italian National Institute of Statistics, figures for Italian foreign trade shows that, in the first half of 2013, imports in the sector were somewhat weak compared to the same period in 2012 whereas exports held relatively firm, as summarized in Table 1.

The downturn in imports is a symptom of a domestic market that still struggles to recover. However, a potentially promising sign, on this front, is the forecast issued by CONFINDUSTRIA which predicts that Italy's GDP will stabilize in the third quarter of the year and even grow slightly (+0.3%) in the final quarter.

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Source: http://www.machinesitalia.org