Eurostat recently published the estimate for the Eurozone regarding trade in goods with the rest of the world. Last June he scored a surplus of 17,3 billion euros, compared to 12,8 billion in the same period of the previous year, while if we consider the seasonally adjusted data, between May and June of this year exports and imports increased by 3,0% and 2,5% respectively.
In turn, data on the EU-27 trade balance show a surplus of 9,9 billion in June, compared to -1,0 billion in 2012. And if seasonally adjusted exports remained stable, imports increased by 1,8%. A positive signal comes from reduction of the community energy deficit (-157,5 billion in the period January-May 2013 compared to -178,5 billion in the same period of 2012), while the positive balance of manufactured goods (163,0 billion against 133,3 billion). Imports from the main trading partners also decreased in the period considered, with the exception of Turkey and India (both +4%). The most relevant decreases were recorded for imports from Norway, Japan (both -15%) and Brazil (-13%). As regards Community exports, the greatest increase was recorded for flows to Switzerland (+33%), while the largest reduction for those to India (-4%). The EU-27 trade surplus increased with Switzerland (37,7 billion euros in the period January-May 2013 compared to 18,1 billion in the period January-May 2012), USA (37,4 billion against 33,0 billion ) and Turkey (+12,2 billion against +10,5 billion). Negative trade balances were recorded with China (-52,3 bn versus -56,8 bn), Russia (-39,5 bn versus -43,1 bn), Norway (-16,8 bn versus -24,8 bn ) and Japan (-1,7 billion versus -5,9 billion).
From the point of view of Member states, the largest surplus was observed in Germany (81,0 bn), followed by the Netherlands (+24,3 bn), Ireland (+15,3 bn) and Italy (+8,7 bn). In France (-32,9 billion) the heaviest deficit, followed by the United Kingdom (-26,1 billion) and Greece (-8,0 billion).
