The 15 eurozone countries suffered a worse than expected trade deficit of 10.7 billion euros (16.9 billion dollars) in January, a first official EU estimate showed Wednesday. The Eurostat data agency said seasonally adjusted eurozone imports and exports both grew 7.4 percent.
The eurozone deficit for December was revised down slightly to 4.1 billion euros from the earlier Eurostat estimate of 4.2 billion euros. In seasonally adjusted terms, the eurozone had a trade deficit of 2.0 billion euros in January after a revised deficit of 1.8 billion in December. The trade deficit with in January 2007 stood at 7.3 billion euros.
The first estimate for all 27 European Union nations together made even worse reading, logging a deficit of 30.7 billion euros compared to 26 billion euros in January 2007. "The eurozone trade balance recorded a second successive deficit in January despite exports showing impressive resilience," said Global Insight economist Howard Archer.
The 7.4 percent export rise followed falls in three of the four previous months, he noted. However the 7.4 percent increase in imports was probably "pushed up by elevated oil and commodity prices," he added. The January eurozone figures include 15 nations for the first time, as Cyprus and Malta adopted the European common currency this year.