Eurozone posts 122pc rise in April trade surplus
AFP, Brussels
The eurozone posted a trade surplus of 6.0 billion euros (7.2 billion dollars) in April, a rise of 122 percent from the year-earlier surplus of 2.7 billion, EU statistics office Eurostat said Friday. Economists polled by AFX News, the AFP financial news service, had forecast an April trade surplus in the 12-state single currency area of 8.0 billion euros. Eurostat upwardly revised the eurozone's March trade surplus to 10.8 billion euros from its original estimate of 10.2 billion. The surplus was 3.4 billion in March 2003. Also in March, the full European Union, at the time with 15 members, had a trade deficit of 1.6 billion euros, compared with 8.6 billion a year ago. The EU expanded to 25 countries on May 1. Over the first four months of the year, the EU trade surplus rose to 17.7 billion euros from 14.4 billion in the same period in 2003. With China, the EU's trade deficit narrowed to 6.8 billion euros in January-March, from 14.7 billion a year earlier. Germany, the eurozone's largest economy, had the biggest trade surplus in the period, at 42.3 billion euros, followed by Ireland with 9.9 billion.
|
|
