STAT/08/69
16 May 2008

March 2008
Euro area external trade deficit 2.3 bn euro
20.5 bn euro deficit for EU27

The first estimate for the euro area¹ (EA15) trade balance with the rest of the world in March 2008 gave a 2.3 bn euro deficit, compared with +7.5 bn in March 2007. The February 2008² balance was +0.8 bn, compared with -1.6 bn in February 2007. In March 2008 compared with February 2008, seasonally adjusted exports fell by 2.9% while imports remained stable.

The first estimate for the March 2008 extra-EU27¹ trade balance was a deficit of 20.5 bn euro, compared with -10.5 bn in March 2007. In February 2008², the balance was -15.6 bn, compared with -17.5 bn in February 2007. In March 2008 compared with February 2008, seasonally adjusted exports fell by 4.9% while imports rose by 0.3%.

These data³ are released by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

EU27 January-February 2008 detailed results

The EU27 energy deficit increased (-58.1 bn euro in January-February 2008 compared with -42.0 bn in January-February 2007), while the surplus rose for machinery and vehicles (+22.0 bn compared with +12.6 bn).

EU27 trade with most of its major partners grew, with the exception of imports from the USA (0% in January-February 2008 compared with January-February 2007) and Japan (-2%). The largest increases were recorded for exports to Russia (+33%) and Brazil (+30%), and imports from Norway (+27%) and Russia (+26%).

The EU27 trade surplus rose with the USA (+11.4 bn euro in January-February 2008 compared with +10.7 bn in January-February 2007) and remained nearly stable with Switzerland (+2.3 bn compared with +2.4 bn). The EU27 trade deficit grew with China (-28.4 bn compared with -27.3 bn), Russia (-12.4 bn compared with -10.5 bn) and Norway (-8.4 bn compared with -6.1 bn), but fell with Japan (-5.2 bn compared with -5.6 bn).

Concerning the total trade of Member States, the largest surplus was observed in Germany (+33.9 bn euro in January-February 2008), followed by the Netherlands (+6.8 bn). The United Kingdom (-22.9 bn) registered the largest deficit, followed by Spain (-17.0 bn), France (-10.0 bn), Greece (-5.9 bn) and Italy (-4.6 bn).

EA15 trade - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

EU27 trade - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

r: Revised

1. The euro area (EA15) includes Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia 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).

1. The first estimates for February 2008 were +0.8 bn euro for the euro area and -15.3 bn euro for the EU27. See News Release 52/2008 issued on 17 April 2008.
2. This News Release is based on data available on 13 May 2008. 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 March 2008 and first estimates for April 2008 will be issued on 17 June 2008.

1. Since the introduction of Intrastat for intra-EU trade on 1 February 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

EA15 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 - EA15 - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Main products - EU27 - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Main trading partners - EA15 - 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.

EA15 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

[ Figures and graphics available in PDF and WORD PROCESSED ]



[ Figures and graphics available in PDF and WORD PROCESSED ]