Italian statistics office, ISTAT, issued unadjusted data Friday, showing that Italy's trade deficit in 2005 increased by 850 percent from 2004 to reach 10.37 billion euros (12.32 billion U.S. dollars).

According to the data, Italy saw a deficit of 1.22 billion euros in 2004.

ISTAT attributed the increase of the deficit to the sharp rise in the cost of importing oil and gas during the year.

Source: Xinhua