Trade Balance in Eurozone

The euro area Trade Balance summarises all merchandise transactions between residents of the bloc and the rest of the world over a given period. It measures the value of exports against imports of goods with non-euro-area partners. It is published by Eurostat.

It is calculated as the difference between the value of exports and imports of goods between euro area residents and the rest of the world. Eurostat also provides breakdowns by product category and by geographical area of destination and origin, and releases both unadjusted and seasonally adjusted series.

It provides insight into the euro area's international trade relations and signals the competitiveness of its economic agents abroad. The balance is linked to the euro's exchange rate and to external demand, and a wide surplus contributes positively to the bloc's GDP.

The figures are released with a lag of almost two months and are revised with each new publication, so they cannot be considered final until well after the reference period. The highly volatile energy component can distort any single month's balance.