Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, released data on the Euro zone trade balance for the month of May. The unadjusted trade gap was down to zero in May from a deficit of 4.8 billion Euro on April. This gives evidence that trade in the 17 member states using the Euro has returned to balance.
Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted trade balance ended May with a 0.6 billion euro deficit, compared with 2.5 billion Euros in April as exports grew much faster than imports on a month-over-month basis, rising 1.5 percent on the month and the value of imports rose 0.2 percent.
On a year-over-year basis, data show that exports rose 21 percent in May, while imports grew by only 16 percent.
Following the release of the data at 09:00 GMT, EURUSD rose to 1.4163 within 30 minutes of the pre-news price of 1.4134.
EUROZONE MAY 2011 MAY 2010 APR 2011 JAN-MAY 2011
EXPORTS 148.1 122.5 138.5 703.5
IMPORTS 148.1 127.4 143.4 725.3
BALANCE 0.0 -4.9 -4.8 -21.8
