Eurozone posts €10.4bn trade surplus

The 17-nation eurozone posted a trade surplus of 10.4 billion euros ($13.6 bn) after recording a revised deficit of 4.7 billion euros in January, Eurostat said Monday. Seasonally adjusted exports rose by 0.1 percent in February from January while imports fell by 2.1 percent. For the full 27-member European Union, the trade balance came in at a 1.8 billion euro surplus, compared to a revised 16.8 billion euros in January. On a seasonally adjusted basis, exports slid by 0.1 percent from January while imports dropped by 2.3 percent. Economist Howard Archer at IHS Global Insight said "an improved Eurozone trade performance in February lifts hopes that net trade made a renewed positive contribution to eurozone GDP in the first quarter of 2013, having been only flat in the fourth quarter of 2012." He noted that while the fall in eurozone imports helped the net trade performance, "it also fuels concern that domestic demand in the eurozone remains weak and could even be faltering anew." The EU's energy deficit dropped to 34.7 billion euros in January 2013, from 36.2 billion in the same month in 2012, according to detailed data released by Eurostat. The surplus for manufactured goods increased to 18.1 billion euros from 14.4 billion in January 2012.