Nevertheless, ISTAT said, the country's trade balance shifted strongly into negative territory due to higher energy prices.
Italian exports in 2022 grew by 19.9 percent, the largest year-on-year increase since 2005. The increase was felt across the board, with exports to European Union trading partners growing by 19.7 percent, while those outside the European Union grew by 20.2 percent.
The biggest drivers included pharmaceutical and medicinal products, which saw a 42.8-percent increase. Meanwhile, base metals and metal products grew by 17.6 percent, and refined petroleum products surged by 80.0 percent.
Energy prices were also behind the 36.5-percent increase in imports, which ISTAT said was "explained by the greater purchase of energy products" which surged in value in the wake of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The balance of trade was a negative 31.01 billion euros (33.09 billion U.S. dollars), a dramatic swing from a surplus of 40.33 billion euros a year earlier.
That change was almost entirely due to increased imports of energy and energy-related products, where the trade deficit in 2022 was 111.28 billion euros compared to an energy-sector deficit of 48.36 billion euros in 2021.
The Italian agricultural union Coldiretti said in a report released Thursday that a 17-percent increase in agricultural exports from 2022 was an all-time record.
The total, reaching 60.7 billion euros, was "driven by the symbolic products of the Mediterranean diet including wine, pasta, and fresh fruit and vegetables." These are the best-selling Italian products abroad, Coldiretti said.
Germany was the biggest market for Italian agricultural exports last year, it added, with a total value last year of 9.4 billion euros.
ISTAT's data showed that the trend for all of 2022 was not in evidence at the end of the year. In December, exports contracted by 1.9 percent, and imports by 1.1 percent compared to the same month in 2021.
Exports in December were lower both among European Union trading partners, where exports decreased by 1.2 percent, and beyond the European Union, where they decreased by 2.6 percent.
Over the final three months of last year, exports grew by a modest 0.8 percent, while imports declined by 6.6 percent compared to the year-ago period. Therefore, most of the increases for the year as a whole came during the first nine months of the year.
Italy's biggest trading partners last year were the United States, where exports grew by 22.5 percent; Turkey, where they grew by 38.4 percent; and Switzerland, which saw a 24.3 percent increase.
There was a sharp decline of 27.7 percent in exports to Russia, due to broad sanctions since the start of the conflict with Ukraine.
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