LONDON: The European Union’s trade surplus with the rest of the world surged almost five-fold last year against 2014 because of a sharp drop in imported energy prices, data showed.
The European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said the trade surplus of the 28-nation bloc in 2015 was 64.2 billion euros against 13.3 billion the year before, with imports rising only 2 percent and exports jumping 5 percent. While in 2014 the EU’s trade deficit in energy was 334.8 billion euros, in 2015 it shrank to only 243.5 billion because of tumbling prices of crude oil and gas.
Imports from Russia, Europe’s main supplier of energy, fell 25 percent in 2015 against 2014, but exports to Russia fell even more — 28 percent — partly because of sanctions imposed on trade with Moscow after its annexation of Crimea. The trade deficit with another EU energy supplier Norway fell to 25.4 billion euros from 34.9 billion in 2014.
The EU increased its trade surplus with its biggest trading partner, the United States, to 123.3 billion euros last year form 104.5 billion the year before but its trade deficit with China jumped to almost 180 billion from 137.5 billion.
Germany remained Europe’s biggest exporter with a trade surplus of 251.9 billion euros, up from 216.5 billion in 2014. Of that total 179.5 billion came from outside the EU. Britain had the biggest trade deficit in the 28-nation bloc last year, rising to 149 billion euros from 139.5 billion the year before.
