Euro Area Trade Surplus Shrinks to €7.8 Billion as Exports Fall 5.5%

4 articles · Updated · European Commission · May 19

€7.8 billion — the euro area's March goods trade surplus fell from €34.1 billion a year earlier and from €11.1 billion in February.
Exports dropped 5.5% year on year to €265.3 billion while imports rose 4.4% to €257.4 billion, sharply narrowing the gap.
Chemicals drove much of the deterioration: that surplus nearly halved to €18.9 billion from €41.8 billion, while machinery and vehicles fell to €9.7 billion from €17.6 billion.
January-March surplus totaled €16.6 billion versus €55.4 billion a year earlier, with exports down 6.5% and imports down 1.5%; intra-euro area trade still rose 1.9%.
Seasonally adjusted March data also weakened, with the surplus slipping to €3.5 billion from €6.5 billion; Eurostat said March aggregates include estimates because Netherlands data were unavailable.

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