Eurozone trade €15.7bn in April

 The eurozone was estimated to have scored a trade surplus of 15.7 billion euros (21.3 billion U.S. dollars) in April, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU) said Friday.
It was up from a surplus of 14.0 billion euros in the same period last year.
Compared with March, the eurozone's seasonally adjusted exports fell by 0.2 percent and imports by 0.5 percent.
As for the 28-mumber EU, the first estimates of trade balance pointed to a surplus of 1.3 billion euros in April, compared with a surplus of 8.5 billion euros in the same month last year and a surplus of 4.1 billion euros in March this year.
In January and March 2014, the EU deficit for energy decreased, while the surplus for machinery and vehicles dropped compared with the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the highest increase of EU exports was to China at 11 percent, while the highest increase of imports was recorded from South Korea at 13 percent.
The most notable decrease for exports and imports were both recorded with Russia at 11 percent and 10 percent respectively.
Concerning the total trade of the EU Member States, the largest surplus in January-March 2014 was observed in Germany, followed by the Netherlands, Ireland, while the largest deficit was registered in Britain. (1 euro = 1.36 U.S. dollar)