March 2011 Euro area external trade surplus 2.8 bn euro 9.6 bn euro deficit for EU27

STAT/11/70

16 May 2011

March 2011
Euro area external trade surplus 2.8 bn euro
9.6 bn euro deficit for EU27

The first estimate for the euro area1 (EA17) trade balance with the rest of the world in March 2011 gave a 2.8 bn euro surplus, compared with +2.7 bn in March 2010. The February 20112 balance was -3.0 bn, compared with +1.4 bn in February 2010. In March 2011 compared with February 2011, seasonally adjusted exports rose by 1.1% and imports by 0.3%.

The first estimate for the March 2011 extra-EU271 trade balance was a 9.6 bn euro deficit, compared with -8.9 bn in March 2010. In February 20112 the balance was -10.1 bn, compared with -7.5 bn in February 2010. In March 2011 compared with February 2011, seasonally adjusted exports fell by 0.2%, while imports rose by 0.6%.

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

EU27 detailed results for January to February 2011

The EU27 deficit for energy increased significantly (-61.0 bn euro in January-February 2011 compared with -44.4 bn in January-February 2010), while the surplus for manufactured goods rose notably (+27.1 bn compared with +17.4 bn).

EU27 trade with all its major partners grew in January-February 2011 compared with January-February 2010. The most notable increases were recorded for exports to Turkey (+47%), Russia (+46%), China (+33%) and South Korea (+31%), and for imports from Brazil (+41%), Russia (+33%), Norway (+30%) and Turkey (+28%).

The EU27 trade surplus increased with the USA (+11.1 bn euro in January-February 2011 compared with +7.9 bn in January-February 2010), Turkey (+3.3 bn compared with +1.4 bn) and Switzerland (+3.3 bn compared with +2.7 bn). The EU27 trade deficit increased with China (-27.9 bn compared with -22.8 bn), Russia (-16.4 bn compared with -13.2 bn), Norway (-8.3 bn compared with -6.4 bn) and Japan (-3.5 bn compared with -2.8 bn), but reduced with South Korea (-1.0 bn compared with -1.7 bn).

Concerning the total trade of Member States, the largest surplus was observed in Germany (+21.9 bn euro in January-February 2011), followed by the Netherlands (+7.5 bn) and Ireland (+6.0 bn). The United Kingdom (-18.4 bn) registered the largest deficit, followed by France (-15.9 bn), Italy (-10.2 bn), Spain (-8.1 bn), Greece (-3.9 bn) and Portugal (-2.7 bn).

EA17 trade - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

EU27 trade - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

r: revised

• The euro area (EA17) consists of Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

The EU27 includes Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

• Compared with News Release 56/2011 of 15 April 2011, the trade balance for February 2011 has been revised from -1.5 bn euro to -3.0 bn for the EA17 and from -9.6 bn to -10.1 bn for the EU27.

• This News Release is based on data available on 11 May 2011. 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.

• 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

EA17 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 - EA17 - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Main products – EU27 - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Main trading partners - EA17 - 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 a harmonised methodology. The seasonally adjusted series give a complementary view of the monthly developments in 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.

EA17 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