The Bank of Italy conducts a sample survey on Italy's international merchandise transport since 1998. The survey, which contributes to the compilation of the "services" item of the balance of payments, collects data on freight rates broken down by mode of transport and type of load; moreover, carriers' market shares by nationality of residence are estimated. The new annual report, referring to 2019, is available in the Statistics series.
The results of the survey, based on interviews with 160 transport operators, show for 2019 stable freight rates on average in road transport and a downward trend in rail transport. Sea freight rates, when denominated in euro/ton, slightly increased also due to the depreciation of euro/dollar exchange rate on yearly average, while air freight rates showed a significant reduction. Italy's merchandise transport deficit decreased slightly (-€5.9 billion), due to a stronger cross-trade activity of Italian ship managers and despite the fact that the market shares of Italian carriers has fallen in almost all transport sectors.
