Eurozone posts trade surplus for August following upward trend
THE EUROZONE announced trade figures for August yesterday, registering a larger surplus in goods and services than it did in the same month last year.
The currency union’s trade surplus was worth €7.1bn (£6.01bn) in August, up from €4.6bn in the same month last year, but down from July’s €18bn.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Eurozone’s trade surplus has been slowly climbing since the middle of 2011.
Germany had the largest trade surplus of any individual country in the euro area during the first seven months of the year, with exports outweighing imports by €114.4bn. At the other end of the spectrum, France had the largest trade deficit in the same period, reaching €44.2bn.
Christian Schulz of Berenberg commented: “Strong August trade data suggests that net exports continued to support Eurozone growth in the third quarter. After a somewhat weaker start to the third quarter, the August hard data points to continued, if subdued output growth in the Eurozone.”