Rome, 16 October (AKI) - Italy's trade deficit with the European Union widened in August to 378 million euros compared with 60 million euros a year earlier. Exports shrunk by 24.8 percent and imports by 22 percent over the period, Italy's central statistics agency ISTAT said on Friday.

Italian exports to the EU dropped 1.9 percent and imports fell 1.3 percent in August compared with July.

Exports from Italy to the EU registered a 2 percent drop and imports slipped 0.4 percent between May and July compared with the previous three months.

Italy's overall trade gap narrowed considerably between January and August to 1.4 billion euros, against 7.3 billion euros during the same period of 2008.

Overall exports fell 23.8 percent from January-August and imports by 25.4 percent.

Exports fell 25 percent in August compared with a year earlier to 16.4 billion euros while imports dropped 26.1 percent to 17.7 billion euros.

Italy's trade deficit stood at 1.348 billion euros in August, compared with 2.151 billion euros a year earlier.