Eurozone trade surplus doubles, boosts crisis countries
By Benjamin Fox
The prospects of the eurozone's nascent economic recovery were boosted on Monday (18 November) after figures revealed that the bloc's trade surplus in 2013 was on course to double 2012.
According to data published by EU statistics agency Eurostat, the eurozone recorded a trade surplus of €109.6 billion with the rest of the world in the first nine months of 2013, up from €50.2 billion last year.
Join EUobserver today
Get the EU news that really matters
Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.
Choose your plan
... or subscribe as a group
Already a member?
The eurozone's surplus with the United States remained almost unchanged at €47.6 billion, while its balance with Japan has shifted from a €4.2 billion deficit in 2012 to a €500 million surplus. China and Russia are the only major economies from whom the eurozone imports more than it sells.
Germany and the Netherlands were the strongest performers racking up surpluses of €127.8 billion and €36 billion, respectively, although both countries saw their export levels fall by 1 percent and 2 percent respectively.
The statistics come just days after the European Commission warned Germany that it would investigate whether its trade surplus, which is worth around 7 percent of GDP, was hurting other eurozone economies.
Meanwhile, embattled France, which has been repeatedly warned by the European Commission to take further steps to liberalise its labour market, saw a 2 percent fall in its export levels and a trade deficit of €50.1 billion.
Outside the eurozone-17, the UK has run the largest deficit at €44.5 billion so far in 2013.
However, the eurozone's crisis-countries are among the strongest performers, suggesting that their economies are rebalancing.
The figures will offer comfort to EU officials whose austerity programmes have focused on the bloc's southern periphery economies becoming more export oriented and reducing domestic consumption.
Spain, which will exit its €41 billion bank rescue package in January, has the fastest growing exports sector in the EU, with total exports valued at €157.9 billion, up on €150.5 billion in 2012.
At the same time, the country's imports have fallen from €174.5 billion to €166.9 billion, meaning that Spain is likely to export more than it consumes in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s.
Greece, Portugal and Cyprus are also among the handful of other European economies to see rising exports combined with falling imports.
But Italy bucks the trend, with its €19.3 billion surplus almost entirely the result of a 7 percent cut in consumption.
However, all four southern countries continue to experience high levels of unemployment.