Spain nearly erases trade deficit in June

Recession-struck Spain enjoyed an export boom in June that nearly wiped out its trade deficit. Spain's trade deficit slumped to just 106.7 million euros ($142 million) in June, down 96 percent from a shortfall of 2.7 billion euros posted a year earlier, government figures showed Thursday. "The trade balance is again approaching balance," the Economy Ministry said in a statement. Spain's exports surged 10.5 percent in June from a year earlier, including a 15.4-percent surge in exports to other European Union nations. Imports eased 2.8 percent over the same period, as Spanish demand dropped in the face of a two-year recession that has pushed the unemployment rate to 26.26 percent. Over the entire first half of 2013, Spain's trade deficit plunged 68.8 percent from a year earlier to 5.82 billion euros, the government said. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government is banking on exports to be one of the engines of recovery for the economy, the fourth largest in the euro zone.