Rome, 4 Sept. (AKI) - Italy's trade balance slumped in June registering a 631 million euro deficit after a 1.15 billion euro surplus in May, the national statistics office ISTAT said on Friday. Exports dived 24.4 percent in June and exports fell 14.1 percent compared with June last year.

Italy's trade balance with other members of the European Union resulted in a 779 million euro deficit in June, reversing a surplus of 604 million euros in May and a 1.327 million euro surplus recorded in June 2008.

The country's inflation rate rose in August after reaching a 50-year low in July, reinforcing signs of recovery from the country's deepest recession since World War II.

Consumer prices based on European Union figures rose 0.4 percent from July, and 0.2 percent from a year earlier, the national statistics institute Istat said in a preliminary report published in Rome last week.

France and Germany, the two biggest economies in the 16-nation euro bloc, emerged from recession in the second quarter.

Italy’s economy, though still shrinking, contracted at a slower pace in the second quarter.