Handelsbalans Europese Unie overzicht maart 2009 (en)

Euro area external trade surplus 0.4 bn euro

9.5 bn euro deficit for EU27

The first estimate for the euro area (EA16) trade balance with the rest of the world in March 2009 gave a 0.4 bn euro surplus, compared with -2.3 bn in March 2008. The February 2009² balance was -1.0 bn, compared with

+1.7 bn in February 2008. In March 2009 compared with February 2009, seasonally adjusted exports rose by 1.4% and imports by 0.6%.

The first estimate for the March 2009 extra-EU27 trade balance was a deficit of 9.5 bn euro, compared with

-19.6 bn in March 2008. In February 2009 the balance was -10.8 bn, compared with -13.3 bn in February 2008. In March 2009 compared with February 2009, seasonally adjusted exports rose by 2.5% and imports by 0.7%.

These data are released by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

EU27 January-February 2009 detailed results

The EU27 energy deficit decreased (-38.6 bn euro in January-February 2009 compared with -58.0 bn in January-February 2008), while the surplus fell for chemicals (+10.1 bn compared with +13.6 bn) and for machinery and vehicles (+11.3 bn compared with +21.9 bn).

EU27 trade flows with all of its major partners fell. The biggest decreases were recorded for exports to Turkey

(-41% in January-February 2009 compared with January-February 2008), Russia (-37%), South Korea (-33%) and India (-31%), and for imports from Russia (-39%), Turkey (-30%), Norway and Brazil (both -28%).

The EU27 trade surplus fell with the USA (+4.2 bn in January-February 2009 compared with +11.7 bn in January-February 2008) and with Switzerland (+2.2 bn compared with +3.1 bn). The EU27 trade deficit decreased with Russia (-7.2 bn compared with -12.5 bn), Norway (-6.0 bn compared with -8.5 bn) and Japan (-3.7 bn compared with -5.3 bn), and remained nearly stable with China (-28.1 bn compared with -28.3 bn).

Concerning the total trade of Member States, the largest surplus was observed in Germany (+15.8 bn euro in January-February 2009), followed by the Netherlands (+6.3 bn) and Ireland (+5.6 bn). The United Kingdom (-16.0 bn) registered the largest deficit, followed by France (-10.6 bn), Spain (-10.3 bn), Greece (-4.6 bn) and Italy (-4.5 bn).

EA16 trade - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

EU27 trade - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

r: revised

• 1. 

  The euro area (EA16) includes Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

The EU27 includes Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE) and the United Kingdom (UK).

• 1. 

  The first estimates for February 2009 were -2.0 bn euro for the euro area and -10.6 bn euro for the EU27. See News Release 53/2009 issued on 17 April 2009.
• 2. 

  This News Release is based on data available on 13 May 2009. These are provisional figures based on information provided by Member States. They are subject to frequent revision for up to two years after the month in question. Furthermore, national concepts may differ from the harmonised methodology used by Eurostat, leading to differences between figures in this release and those published nationally, both for raw data and for seasonally adjusted series.

The next News Release including revised data for March 2009 and first estimates for April 2009 will be issued on

17 June 2009.

• 1. 

  Since the introduction of Intrastat for intra-EU trade on 1 January 1993, the value of dispatches has been consistently higher than that of arrivals. In theory, as dispatches are declared FOB and arrivals CIF, the value of arrivals should be slightly higher than that of dispatches. Eurostat uses dispatches as the more reliable measure of total intra-EU trade as, at aggregated levels, total dispatches has better coverage than total arrivals. Due to this divergence in intra-EU trade, and to the difficulties of interpreting figures in absolute terms at the level of individual Member States, trade balances for individual Member States must be interpreted with caution. The same caution applies to the trade balance of the euro area, which includes some intra-EU trade.

Selected Principal European Economic Indicators: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/euroindicators

EA16 trade - previous 6 months - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

EU27 trade - previous 6 months - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

r: revised

Main products - EA16 - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Main products – EU27 - non seasonally adjusted data

Main trading partners - EA16 - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Main trading partners – EU27 - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Member States’ total trade (intra-EU + extra-EU) - non seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Annex - Seasonally adjusted data

Seasonally adjusted series have been calculated using one harmonised methodology. The seasonally adjusted series give a complementary view of the monthly evolution of trade. Seasonally adjusted figures may not match those published by Member States due to differences in the raw data³ in the choice of seasonal adjustment model and to the use of series in national currency or in euro.

EA16 trade - seasonally adjusted data bn euro

EU27 trade - seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Contribution of EU27 Member States to extra-EU27 trade - seasonally adjusted data bn euro

Seasonally adjusted data

[ Figures and graphics available in PDF and WORD PROCESSED ]

[ Figures and graphics available in PDF and WORD PROCESSED ]