April 2010 Euro area external trade surplus 1.8 bn euro 10.2 bn euro deficit for EU27

STAT/10/85

15 June 2010

April 2010
Euro area external trade surplus 1.8 bn euro
10.2 bn euro deficit for EU27

The first estimate for the euro area1 (EA16) trade balance with the rest of the world in April 2010 gave a 1.8 billion euro surplus, compared with +2.6 bn in April 2009. The March 20102 balance was +4.5 bn, compared with +1.5 bn in March 2009. In April 2010 compared with March 2010, seasonally adjusted exports fell by 2.4% and imports by 3.5%.

The first estimate for the April 2010 extra-EU271 trade balance was a 10.2 bn euro deficit, compared with -7.8 bn in April 2009. In March 20102 the balance was -7.2 bn, compared with -9.2 bn in March 2009. In April 2010 compared with March 2010, seasonally adjusted exports fell by 2.4% and imports by 2.8%.

These data3 are released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

EU27 January-March 2010 detailed results

The EU27 deficit rose for energy (-66.6 bn euro in January-March 2010 compared with -58.5 bn in January-March 2009), while the surplus for manufactured goods increased (+35.9 bn compared with +21.9 bn).

EU27 exports to all its major partners grew in January-March 2010 compared with January-March 2009. The most notable increases were recorded for exports to China (+48%), Brazil (+43%) and Turkey (+41%). For imports, the largest increases were recorded with Russia (+35%), India (+16%) and Turkey (+14%), and the largest fall with the USA (-12%).

The EU27 trade surplus increased with the USA (+14.2 bn euro in January-March 2010 compared with +6.3 bn in January-March 2009), Switzerland (+4.4 bn compared with +3.3 bn) and Turkey (+2.8 bn compared with +0.3 bn). The EU27 trade deficit decreased with China (-34.6 bn compared with -37.0 bn), Norway (-9.4 bn compared with
-10.0 bn) and Japan (-5.0 bn compared with -5.8 bn), but increased with Russia (-18.2 bn compared with -10.5 bn).

Concerning the total trade of Member States, the largest surplus was observed in Germany (+37.4 bn euro in January-March 2010), followed by the Netherlands (+12.0 bn) and Ireland (+9.4 bn). The United Kingdom
(-24.9 bn) registered the largest deficit, followed by France (-14.4 bn), Spain (-12.2 bn), Greece (-7.1 bn) and Italy (-6.9 bn).

EA16 trade - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

EU27 trade - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

r: revised

• The euro area (EA16) includes Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

The EU27 includes Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE) and the United Kingdom (UK).

• Compared to News Release 72/2010 of 18 May 2010, the trade balance for March 2010 remains unchanged at +4.5 bn euro for the euro area, and has been revised from -7.1 bn to -7.2 bn for the EU27.

• This News Release is based on data available on 10 June 2010. These are provisional figures based on information provided by Member States. They are subject to frequent revision for up to two years after the month in question. Furthermore, national concepts may differ from the harmonised methodology used by Eurostat, leading to differences between figures in this release and those published nationally, both for raw data and for seasonally adjusted series.

The next News Release including revised data for April 2010 and first estimates for May 2010 will be issued on 16 July 2010.

• Since the introduction of Intrastat for intra-EU trade on 1 January 1993, the value of dispatches has been consistently higher than that of arrivals. In theory, as dispatches are declared FOB and arrivals CIF, the value of arrivals should be slightly higher than that of dispatches. Eurostat uses dispatches as the more reliable measure of total intra-EU trade as, at aggregated levels, total dispatches has better coverage than total arrivals. Due to this divergence in intra-EU trade, and to the difficulties of interpreting figures in absolute terms at the level of individual Member States, trade balances for individual Member States must be interpreted with caution. The same caution applies to the trade balance of the euro area, which includes some intra-EU trade.

Selected Principal European Economic Indicators:

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/euroindicators

EA16 trade - previous 6 months - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

EU27 trade - previous 6 months - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

r: revised

Main products - EA16 - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Main products – EU27 - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Main trading partners - EA16 - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Main trading partners – EU27 - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Member States’ total trade (intra-EU + extra-EU) - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Annex - Seasonally adjusted data

Seasonally adjusted series have been calculated using one harmonised methodology. The seasonally adjusted series give a complementary view of the monthly evolution of trade. Seasonally adjusted figures may not match those published by Member States due to differences in the raw data3 in the choice of seasonal adjustment model and to the use of series in national currency or in euro.

EA16 trade - seasonally adjusted data bn euro

EU27 trade - seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Contribution of EU27 Member States to extra-EU27 trade - seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Seasonally adjusted data