EURO AREA exports declined in July, adding to signs of a recession after the economy was pushed into a contraction in the second quarter.
Exports from the 17-nation euro region fell a seasonally-adjusted 2 per cent from June, when they gained a revised 2.4 per cent, the EU’s statistics office in Luxembourg said yesterday.
Imports slipped 1.2 per cent and the trade surplus narrowed to €7.9 billion from €9.3 billion.
In the US, industrial output unexpectedly fell in August.
“The euro region economy is in recession and that means the most important trading market is in an extremely weak condition,” said Andreas Scheuerle, an economist at Dekabank in Frankfurt.
German exports dropped 4.2 per cent in July from the previous month, while Italy reported a decrease of 4.5 per cent, yesterday’s report showed. In France shipments fell 0.2 per cent. Greece had a drop of 7 per cent, while Spain and Portugal reported gains of 1.4 per cent.
Irish exports advanced 1.5 per cent from the previous month.
Euro area exports to the US rose a non-seasonally adjusted 12 per cent in the first six months from a year earlier, while shipments to the UK increased by 7 per cent.
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