Italian Industry Sees Slight Pickup

Italy's pharmaceutical sector finally reported a slight reprieve in 1996after three negative years, reports the industry association Farmindustria.

Signs of a pickup can be found in the rise in domestic sales (11%) last year and an increase in employment, which grew for the first time in six years, albeit by a modest 1.1%. The rise in domestic sales, to $9.97 billion, is attributed to higher prices (2.99%), an increase in consumption (2.54%) and the introduction of new products bearing high research costs (5.11%).

Italy remains the fifth major world market in terms of domestic sales, after the USA at $96.7 billion, Japan at $61.1 billion, Germany on $21.3 billion and France at $18.4 billion. Italy's pharmaceutical exports climbed 11.15% to 7.09 billion lire ($4.03 million), while imports rose 10.96% to 7.64 billion lire ($4.34 million). This makes Italy the only large industrialized country after Japan with a deficit in pharmaceutical trade.