Italian exports fell by 1.1% in the first half of 2024 compared to the equivalent period last year, Istat said on Wednesday. The national statistics agency said that exports from northwest Italy were hit especially hard, falling by 3.5% in the January-June period. It said exports from central Italy dropped 2.3% and those from the northeast were 1.4% down, but they were up 3.5% for southern Italy and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. The regions that registered the biggest falls were Marche (-41.3%), Piedmont (-4.6%), Veneto (-3.5%) and Liguria (-26.3%), while the biggest increases were in Tuscany (+8.7%), Lazio (+6.7%), Campania (+8.8%) and Sardinia (+18.8%). Source: Ansa News Agency