Eurozone sees trade surplus fall 27% during April 

Data shows that the eurozone recorded a trade surplus of €9.9bn compared to the €13.6bn recorded in April 2024.

The eurozone’s trade surplus during April saw a 27% decline compared to the same month last year largely due to a fall off in trade in the machinery and vehicles sector, new data from Eurostat shows.

The data shows that the eurozone recorded a trade surplus of €9.9bn compared to the €13.6bn recorded in April 2024. In the machinery and vehicles sector alone, the trade surplus fell from €16.8bn to €12.8bn.

In total, the eurozone exported goods valued at €243bn to the rest of the world during April - a decrease of 1.4% year-on-year - while imports from the rest of the world were valued at €233.1bn, an increase of 0.1%.

In comparison to March, the trade surplus fell over 73% from 37.3bn. This decrease was mainly driven by a “substantial reduction in the surplus of the chemicals sector”, which fell from €42.8bn to €22.1bn.

Between January to April, the eurozone recorded a surplus of €71bn, compared with €68.6bn during the same period in 2024. Intra-eurozone trade rose to €878.9bn between January-April, up by 0.8%.

The wider EU’s trade surplus for the month stood at €7.4bn - down from €35.5bn in March and from €12.8bn in April 2024. Again the month-on-month decline was largely driven by the contraction of the chemicals sector.

The US was the EU’s largest export market during the month accounting for €47.6bn worth of exports - an increase of 3.8% year-on-year. The next largest export market was the UK accounting for €28.2bn worth of exports but this represented a decline of 4.8% compared to last year.

Exports to China fell by nearly 16% to €16.3bn while imports from the country increased by 8.4% to €44.4bn. China was Europe’s largest import market during the month.

The US was the EU’s next largest import market accounting for €29.9bn worth of imports, up 2.4%.