Luxembourg, 27/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - According to the first estimates published on Monday by Eurostat for September, eurozone trade with the rest of the world registered a EUR 3.8 billion surplus, compared with a 0.5 bn deficit in September 2000. Eurozone trade recorded a surplus of EUR 23.3 bn for the first nine months of 2001. The EU as a whole (EU15), however, recorded a EUR 4.2 bn deficit in September 2001 (compared with -9.1 bn in September 2000), while the EU15 deficit for the first nine months of 2001 reached 51.4 bn (compared with -68.1 bn in 2000).
Eurostat reports that during the first eight months of 2001, the energy deficit continued to increase (-80.2 bn in Jan-August 2001 compared with -71.9 bn in Jan-August 2000), while the surplus for machinery and vehicles nearly doubled (+52.1 bn compared with +28.2 bn). EU15 trade flows with all its major partners grew, except for imports from Japan, which fell by 6%, and exports to Turkey, which fell by 27%. The biggest increases were in exports to Russia (+45%), China (+28%) and the Czech Republic (+20%) and in imports from the Czech Republic (+19%) and Turkey (+18%). EU15 trade with the US was characterised by an increase in the EU surplus (+25.0 bn in Jan-Aug 2001 compared with +20.2 bn in the same period in 2000), while EU15 trade with Japan showed a decrease in the EU deficit (-22.8 bn, compared with -27.7 bn). The highest EU15 trade deficit in the first eight months of 2001 was recorded with China (-29.3 bn) and the highest surplus was registered with the US.