Trade deficit narrows
Greece’s trade deficit narrowed to 9.5 billion euros in April 2009, according to data released yesterday by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics service. This figure represents a decrease of 3.4 billion euros compared with the same period of 2008. Exports from Greece came to 4.5 billion euros and imports reached 14 billion euros, resulting in a trimming of the trade deficit from 12.9 billion euros to 9.5 billion euros. Relative to 2008, Greek exports shrank by 17 percent (from 5.4 billion to 4.5 billion euros) while imports also declined, at a rate of 23 percent (from 18.3 billion to 14 billion euros). The biggest trade surplus across the European Union was recorded by Germany with 36.8 billion euros, while the United Kingdom had the biggest deficit with 31.2 billion euros. In May, the eurozone’s trade surplus with the rest of the world came to 1.9 billion euros, while the EU-27 recorded a combined deficit of 6.8 billion euros.
