According to the preliminary results published by the Ucima Statistics Department, the sector is set to report a new record turnover of more than EUR6,2 million.
Growth is estimated at 3.3%, slightly smaller than the figure for the last few years. This result is largely attributable to exports, which made up 82.2% of total turnover and grew by 2.2% to EUR 5,1 million.
The European Union remains the largest market for Italian technologies, followed by Asia and non-EU European countries. According to the figures for the first nine months of the year, the top three importer countries are the United States, China and France.
The domestic market also performed strongly with 9% growth to more than EUR1,1 million. This was largely a result of the tax concessions on the purchase of capital goods offered by the so-called “Sabatini Bis” law.
“After years of steady growth, we have seen a small slowdown in orders in our key geographical markets in recent months,” said Ucima’s Chairman, Giuseppe Lesce.
“The outlook for the coming year is therefore very cautious, particular given the uncertainly caused by the social and political unrest and the economic downturn in a number of key markets.”