Euro-Zone April Trade Surplus Smaller Than Expected
By Ilona Billington
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LONDON (Dow Jones)--The euro zone's balance in the trade of goods with the rest of the world remained in surplus in April, but it was smaller than in March this year and in April 2009, data from the European Union's statistics agency showed Tuesday.
The 16 countries that use the euro had a combined goods trade surplus of EUR1.8 billion, compared with a surplus of EUR4.5 billion in March and EUR2.6 billion in April 2009.
The surplus was smaller than expected as economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a EUR3.0 billion surplus in April.
Exports from the euro zone grew 18% to EUR121.6 billion from EUR102.9 billion a year earlier, while imports increased 19% to EUR119.8 billion in April from EUR100.4 billion in April 2009.
Both exports and imports in April were lower than the levels reported in March, the Eurostat data showed.
The total trade balance for the euro zone between January and March was a deficit of EUR2.1 billion, a sharp improvement from the EUR11.9 billion deficit posted during the same period in 2009.
Trade in manufactured goods--which include chemicals and machinery--amounted to a surplus of EUR56.2 billion over the first three months of 2010. Although this was higher than the EUR41.1 billion surplus in the corresponding period of 2009, it compares with a deficit of EUR62.3 billion in the trade of primary products which include food, drink and energy products.
The deficit for this sector was largely due to deficit of EUR58.9 billion in the trade of energy products, although that was only a little wider than the EUR50.1 billion deficit in the corresponding period of 2009, Eurostat data showed.
The breakdown of the energy trade balance shows that imports of energy--the euro zone imports much of its oil and natural gas--were just over five times larger than exports in the first three months of the year.
Among the largest euro zone economies, Germany posted a surplus of EUR37.4 billion between January and March, larger than the EUR27.4 billion surplus in the corresponding period in 2009.
France had a trade deficit of EUR14.4 billion in the first three months of the year, the exact same figure posted a year earlier, while Italy's EUR6.9 billion deficit was a little wider than the EUR5.0 billion deficit reported between January and March 2009.
Greece posted a trade deficit of GBP7.1 billion in the first three months of the year, little changed from a EUR7.5 billion deficit in the corresponding period of 2009, while Spain posted a EUR12.2 billion deficit, slightly narrower than the EUR13.9 billion deficit in the first three months of 2009.
-By Ilona Billington, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 20 7842 9452; ilona.billington@dowjones.com |
