Euro zone swings to trade surplus y/y in July

BRUSSELS, Sept 15 (Reuters) – The euro zone swung to an unadjusted 6.5 billion euro trade surplus in July from a 36.3 billion euro deficit a year earlier as costs of energy imports plunged and exports of manufactured goods surged, data showed on Friday.

The European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said the unadjusted trade balance in the January-July period also became positive showing a 2.7 billion euro surplus, compared with a 188.1 billion euro deficit in the same period of 2022.

Adjusted for seasonal swings, the trade surplus in July was 2.9 billion euros, down from 8.6 billion in June.

A massive fall in the trade deficit in energy of the 27-nation European Union had the biggest impact on the results, with the trade gap down to 247.7 billion euros in the first seven months of the year from 352.3 billion in the same period of 2022.

At the same time the EU trade surplus in manufactured goods almost doubled to 215.9 billion in the January-July period from 115.1 in the same period last year.

The EU’s trade gap with Russia, which used to be the bloc’s main energy supplier before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, shrunk to 9.2 billion euros in the seven months of this year from 105 billion last year.

The EU’s trade gap with China, its second biggest trading partner after the United States, also continued to shrink to 174.7 billion euros in the first seven months from 220.3 billion in the same period of 2022.

Euro zone trade – non seasonally adjusted data

(all figures billions euros, unless stated):

Flows	Jul 22	Jul 23	Growth	Jan-Jul 22	Jan-Jul 23	Growth
Extra-EA exports	234.1	227.8	-2.7%	1 624.9	1 663.0	2.3%
Extra-EA imports	270.4	221.3	-18.2%	1 813.0	1 660.4	-8.4%
Extra-EA trade balance	-36.3	6.5		-188.1	2.7
Intra-EA trade	230.0	211.8	-7.9%	1 584.5	1 584.2	0.0%

Euro zone trade – seasonally adjusted data

(all figures billions euros, unless stated):

Flows	Aug 22	Sep 22	Oct 22	Nov 22	Dec 22	Jan 23	Feb 23	Mar 23	Apr 23	May 23	Jun 23	Jul 23
Extra-EA exports	245.6	248.8	247.9	249.2	236.3	239.4	241.1	241.3	233.0	238.3	236.6	232.6
Extra-EA imports	293.6	287.1	276.1	265.5	255.9	252.4	242.7	232.6	241.2	238.5	228.1	229.7
Extra-EA trade balance	-48.0	-38.3	-28.2	-16.3	-19.6	-13.0	-1.6	8.7	-8.1	-0.2	8.6	2.9
Intra-EA trade	246.6	244.0	237.0	236.4	234.4	228.9	230.1	225.5	221.3	220.5	219.3	218.7

For Eurostat release, click on:

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/news/euro-indicators