Estimates show a foreign trade surplus of 2.3 billion euros (1 euro equals about 1.54 U.S. dollars) for the 15-nation euro zone in April 2008, bouncing from a deficit of 1.5 billion euros in March, the EU's statistical office Eurostat reported Tuesday.
However, the estimate gives a deficit of 15.4 billion euros for the 27-member European Union (EU) in April, compared with a deficit of 12.9 billion euros one year ago.
In March 2008, the EU had a deficit trade balance of 20.8 billion euros, compared with a 10.5 billion deficit in March 2007.
Meanwhile, in April 2008, seasonally adjusted exports for the euro zone rose by 6.2 percent and imports by 3.6 percent, compared with March 2008. The growth rate was 5.1 percent and 1.4 percent respectively for EU in the same period,
According to Eurostat, the EU's trade with most of its major partners grew in the first quarter of this year, with the exception of Japan and the United States.
The largest increases were recorded for exports to Russia (25 percent) and Brazil (20 percent), and for imports from Russia (28 percent) and Norway (22 percent).
In terms of the total trade of EU member nations in the first three months this year, the largest surplus was observed in Germany, with 50.4 billion euros, followed by the Netherlands (10.9 billion).
Britain registered the largest deficit of 34 billion euros, followed by Spain at 26.7 billion, France at 14.5 billion and Greece at 9 billion euros worth of deficits.
Source:Xinhua
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