The eurozone's trade balance swung to a surplus in September from an August deficit, data showed on Friday, in what economists attributed to a decline in oil prices and continued healthy growth in exports.
European Union statistics office Eurostat said the 12 countries using the euro had a trade surplus of 2.0 billion euros ($2.56 billion) in September against a revised deficit of 5.4 billion euros in August.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected a deficit of 2.5 billion euros for September. Eurozone annual growth in non-seasonally adjusted exports accelerated to 9 percent in September from 7 percent in August while import growth slowed to 9 percent from 10 percent.
Seasonally adjusted, exports grew by 2 percent in September against August and imports declined by 0.1 percent. "The eurozone trade data for September are encouraging," said Howard Archer, economist at Global Insight. "The moderation in oil prices from their early-August peak levels clearly helped to limit imports, while it was particularly encouraging to see that exports rose by a healthy 2.0 percent month-on-month after jumping 4.0 percent in August."
Detailed data for September will not be available until December 18, but a breakdown for August showed energy remained the biggest item on the eurozone's imports list. The trade deficit in energy widened to 168 billion euros in the January-August period from 124 billion euros a year before.
But in September, oil fell to around $62 a barrel from an August 7 peak of $77. Of the main trading partners, the eurozone's trade deficit with China grew by 21 percent annually in January-August and surged 52 percent with energy exporter Russia.
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