EU trade balance details for January to July 2009

According to Eurostat:

EU Trade Balance - detailed results for the January-July 2009 period

The EU's energy trade deficit decreased (-132.6 bn euro in January-July 2009 compared with -227.7 bn in January-July 2008).

The surplus fell for machinery and vehicles (+61.3 bn compared with +90.9 bn), but rose for chemicals (+47.0 bn compared with +45.1 bn).



EU's trade flows with all of its major partners fell.

Exports: The largest decreases were recorded for exports to Russia (-40% in January-July 2009 compared with January-July 2008), Turkey (-30%), South Korea (-24%), Brazil (-23%), Norway (-21%) and the USA (-20%).

Imports: The largest decreases were recorded for imports from Russia (-44%), Norway (-31%), Japan (-29%), Brazil (-28%) and Turkey (-27%).

Trade surplus: It fell with the USA (+22.4 bn euro in January-July 2009 compared with +38.4 bn in January-July 2008), Switzerland (+7.4 bn compared with +10.8 bn) and Turkey (+3.4 bn compared with +6.2 bn).

Trade Deficit: It decreased with China (-75.2 bn compared with -87.2 bn), Russia (-24.5 bn compared with -47.9 bn), Norway (-19.1 bn compared with -31.9 bn), Japan (-11.7 bn compared with -20.3 bn) and South Korea (-6.9 bn compared with -7.2 bn).

The total trade of individual Member States:

The largest surplus was observed in Germany (+73.4 bn euro in January-July 2009), followed by Ireland (+23.3 bn) and the Netherlands (+20.9 bn).

The United Kingdom (-54.4 bn) registered the largest deficit, followed by France (-30.4 bn), Spain (-26.9 bn), Greece (-17.1 bn) and Portugal (-10.0 bn).