The 16 Members of the Euro Zone achieved a trade surplus well above expectations in July, as exports decrease less than imports, according to the information released by the Eurostat yesterday. Based on these figures, the prospect of economic growth in the third quarter has become much more probable.
The European Union"s statistics agency Eurostat announced that the 16 Euro Zone Members had an aggregated trade surplus of 12.6 billion EUR in July, the largest since July 2002, when the surplus reached 13.5 billion EUR. Euro Zone exports decreased by an annualized 19 per cent in July, while imports dropped by 30 per cent in the same month.
Analysts had predicted a trade surplus of 5.2 billion EUR. The 12.6 billion EUR surplus logged for July 2009 came after a 5.4 billion EUR surplus in June, which was revised upwards from the previous forecast of 4.6 billion EUR. The Euro Zone trade deficit in July 2008 was 3.5 billion EUR.
The European Union reported a trade surplus of 700 billion EUR for July 2009, up from a deficit of 22.4 billion EUR in July 2008. EU exports gained an annualized 3.3%, while imports decreased by 0.6%.