Luxembourg, 23/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - According to estimates published by Eurostat on 20 September, in July the euro zone recorded a surplus of 12 billion euro in its external trade with the rest of the world; in July 2001, the surplus amounted to 8.7 bn. The zone recorded a trade surplus of 54 bn for the first seven months of 2002, compared to +13.8 bn in 2001. Furthermore, the first estimates for the European Union (EU15) trade with the rest of the world in July 2002 lead to a revised estimate of 4.2 bn euro, against a deficit of 0.3 bn in July 2001. In June 2002, the surplus was 2.5bn, against a deficit of 4.6 bn in June 2001. The EU15 recorded a deficit estimated at 1.9 bn in the first seven months of 2002, compared to -43.4 bn in 2001.
The Community's statistical office also states that in the EU15, the deficit in the energy sector fell (-54.9 bn compared to 60.4 bn in January-June 2001), whereas the surplus recorded for machines and vehicles increased steeply (+44.4 bn compared to +31.3 bn). The surplus in the field of chemical products also increased (+34.5 bn compared to +30.0 bn). In the same period, the evolution in trade of the EU15 with its main partners was not uniform. The steepest falls were recorded at the level of imports from Japan (-18%), the United States (-13.%) and Russia (-8%) and exports to Japan (-10%) and Switzerland (-6%). The steepest rises concerned exports to Russia (+17%), Turkey (+11%) and China (+10%) and imports from the Czech Republic (+10%) and Turkey (+5%). Germany recorded the highest surplus (+61.7 bn euro), followed by Ireland (+19.1 bn). The United Kingdom recorded the highest deficit (-31.6 bn), followed by Spain (-16.3 bn).