Mubasher: The euro area recorded a trade balance surplus of EUR 26.3 billion in November 2017, up from EUR 23.8 billion in the year-ago period, data by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU), showed on Monday.

Exports in the euro area reached EUR 197.5 billion in November, up 7.7% year-on-year from EUR 183.5 billion, while imports increased 7.3% to EUR 171.2 billion from EUR 159.6 billion.

Meanwhile, the EU's trade surplus amounted to EUR 8 billion, compared with EUR 5.5 billion in November 2016, as both exports and imports rose 6.8% and 5.4%, respectively.

Furthermore, the euro area's seasonally adjusted trade surplus was EUR 22.5 billion in November, up from EUR 19.0 billion in the previous month, while the EU's seasonally adjusted surplus went up to EUR 5.2 billion from 0.6 billion in October.

This data has helped the already-rising euro, prompting the EUR/USD pair to jump 0.64% to $1.2280 by 10:26 am GMT.