The trade balance of the euro zone fell slipped into a deficit in January while new orders for industry in the 12-nation single currency zone shrank, the European Union statistics office said today.
Eurostat reported a January trade deficit of €2.2 billion, down from a slight surplus of €1.7 billion in January 2004 as imports rose 13 per cent and exports by 8 per cent, reflecting the difficulty exporters are facing from a strong euro.
In December 2004 the euro zone had a trade surplus of €5.1 billion, revised from an originally reported €5.7 billion.
New orders for industry declined 5.8 per cent in January from in December, mainly due to an expected drop in orders for transport equipment. Compared with January 2004, industry orders were up 8.5 per cent, Eurostat data showed. Orders in the French transport sector surged in November and December and economists had expected a decline at some point.
Transport orders declined 19.6 per cent in January from December, but were still up 9.2 per cent from January 2004.