The European Union (EU) statistical office said Monday the euro area's non-seasonally adjusted external trade surplus hit 21.2 billion euros (27.39 billion U.S. dollars) in July, registering an almost 18 percent year-on-year rise.
According to data released by the Eurostat, the external trade surplus of the 18 euro area countries was 16.7 billion euros in June, on an unadjusted basis.
However, in July, compared with June this year, seasonally adjusted exports fell by 0.2 percent, while imports rose by 0.9 percent.
Regarding the trade performance of the 28-member EU, the first estimate for the EU international trade in goods was a 1.7 billion surplus in July, compared with 10.8 billion surplus in July last year. However, in July compared with June this year, seasonally adjusted exports fell by 0.3 percent while imports rose by 2.3 percent.
As to the EU trade details of the first six months this year, the highest increases in the EU exports were registered with China and South Korea, and for the imports with South Korea, Turkey, China and Switzerland. Besides, the most notable decreases were recorded for exports to Switzerland, Russia and India, and for imports from Russia, Japan, Norway and Brazil.
Eurostat said that in the first half of the year, the EU deficit for energy narrowed to 171.8 billion euros from 186.3 billion euros in the first six months of last year. (1 euro = 1.29 U.S. dollars)