The exports of the 19-country Eurozone increased to 182.7 billion euros in June, official data shows, suggesting the single currency bloc continued to benefit from the weakened euro. The first estimate of the area’s exports made an increase of 12 percent compared with June 2014 (162.7 billion euros), according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU). The zone’s seasonally-adjusted goods trade surplus edged up from 21.3 billion euros in May to 21.9 billion euros in June, with the monthly rise in export values outpacing that of imports.
As Eurozone’s imports from the rest of world stood at 156.4 billion euros in June, the area recorded a 26.4-billion-euro surplus in goods trade; intra-euro area trade rose to 151.2 billion euros in June, up by 10 percent year on year. In the first half of the year, the single currency bloc’s goods exports rose to 1011.7 billion euros, up 6 percent compared with the same period in 2014, Eurostat said. “In the annual terms, exports’ outperformance is even more impressive,” said Capital Economics European Economist Janmes Howat in a report, adding that “This might reflect the fact that the trade-weighted euro has depreciation by about 10 percent over the last year.” However, economists warned that as the effects of the weaker euro fade, the zone’s export growth might soon slow again. The first estimate for exports of the wider 28-country EU was 159.7 billion euros in June 2015, up by 13 percent compared with the same period of last year, Eurostat said. (1 euro = 1.11 U.S. dollars)
