EU's surplus with US widens in 2017

BRUSSELS, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The European Union's trade surplus with the U.S. widened to 120.8 billion euros (150.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, up from 113.1 billion euros in 2016, according to trade data from the EU statistics office, Eurostat, on Thursday.

That amounts to a 6.8-percent increase, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's complaint of "very unfair" EU trade policy at the end of January.

Numbers from Eurostat showed that EU's trade deficit with China was 176 billion euros, virtually unchanged from 175.3 billion euros in 2016.

Throughout 2017, EU exports of goods rose 7.7 percent to 1,878.5 billion euros, while imports rose 8.2 percent to 1,853.5 billion euros, leading to a surplus of 25 billion euros, compared with 32 billion in 2016 euros.

In the euro area, which has 19 economies instead of the EU's 28, exports rose 7.1 percent to 2,192.9 billion euros, while imports rose 9.7 percent to 1,954.8 billion euros. As a result, the euro area's surplus dropped from 265.2 billion euros in 2016 to 238.1 billion euros in 2017.

A research note from Daiwa Capital Markets Europe said "looking at 2017 as a whole, euro area exports rose by an impressive 7.1 percent year on year, having barely grown at all in 2016."

The growth was "fuelled not least by stronger shipments to China (up more than 16 percent year-on-year) and Russia (up almost 20 percent year on year), although non-euro area EU member states such as Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic also provided notable support," according to the research. (1 euro = 1.25 U.S. dollars) Enditem