The eurozone's unadjusted external trade surplus increased in April as the year-on-year plunge in exports was marginally smaller than in imports, data showed today.
The surplus in the 16 countries using the euro came to €2.7 billion, compared with an upwardly revised €1.8 billion surplus in March and a €2.2 billion surplus in April 2008, European Union statistics office Eurostat said.
Unadjusted exports fell 27 per cent year-on-year to €102.1 billion and imports dropped 28 per cent to €99.4 billion.
Seasonally adjusted, the trade balance continued a trend of narrowing deficits since January. The gap shrank to €300 million from March's €1.8 billion as exports fell 1.3 per cent month-on-month and imports declined 2.7 per cent.
The eurozone economy contracted 2.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the January-March period -- its deepest fall on record -- in what economists said was likely the low point of the recession.
Negative trade on the back of exports plunging faster than imports lowered the quarterly result by 0.3 percentage point.
Separately, Eurostat said construction output in the eurozone rose 0.6 per cent month-on-month in April for the second month running, limiting the year-on-year drop to 4.7 per cent versus 8.3 per cent in March and 12.5 per cent in February.
Reuters