Rome, Jun 26 (IANS): Italy's trade with countries outside the European Union (EU) significantly increased in May year-on-year, the country's National Institute of Statistics (Istat) said.

Istat said on Friday that the 43.9 per cent increase in exports and 55.0 per cent spike in imports were mostly attributable to the dramatic decrease registered in May 2020, during the national and global economic slowdown sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, reports Xinhua news agency.

However, the country's non-EU trade figures still showed positive trends independent of the comparison period, Istat said.

During the economic quarter ending in May, exports increased by 6.1 per cent and imports by 13.9 per cent compared to the previous three-month period.

Those gains came despite what Istat called "cyclical declines" of 4.1 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively, in May compared to April.

The most important sectors for both indicators were energy and energy-related products, which saw exports rise by 46.4 percent in the quarter ending in May, while imports of energy and energy-related products grew by 37.6 per cent.

The same sectors saw the biggest year-on-year growth in May, with exports showing what Istat called "exceptional" gains of 229.4 per cent.

Exports of consumer goods, up 113.3 per cent, and capital goods, up 56.5 per cent, also saw dramatic increases compared to a year earlier.

With those increases, Italy's overall trade surplus was 4.77 billion euros ($5.69 billion ) in May, up from 4.11 billion euros a year earlier.

In May, Italy's exports to all its main non-EU trading partners increased significantly year-on-year: to China by 55.2 per cent, the US by 43.0 per cent and the UK by 42.0 per cent.