By Manuela Mesco

Italy's trade surplus with commercial partners outside the European Union rose to 20 billion euros ($27 billion) in 2013 from EUR800 million in 2012, national statistics institute Istat reported Thursday.

In December alone, Italy's trade surplus with non-EU countries was EUR3.4 billion, Istat added.

The strong rise for 2013 was due to an overall increasing surplus in most sectors as imports decreased at a faster rate than exports, particularly energy.

Last year's exports rose 1.3% compared with the previous year, while imports declined 9.5%.

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Source: http://online.wsj.com