Mubasher: Preliminary estimates suggested that the Eurozone ran a trade balance surplus of EUR 14.7 billion ($16.21 billion) in August, higher than a surplus of EUR 11.9 billion in the same month last year.

Outbound shipments from the Eurozone to the rest of the world fell by 2.2% to EUR 177.4 billion last August, compared with EUR 181.4 billion in exports in the same month last year, according to the Eurostat’s data released on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Eurozone imports from the rest of the world dropped by 4.1% year-on-year to EUR 162.6 billion during the month.

Trade balance for the 28 Members of European Union (EU28) recorded a deficit of EUR 12.1 billion ($13.34 billion) last August, which was worse than a deficit of EUR 7.9 billion the year before.

Exports from the EU28 totalled EUR 154.2 billion during August, compared with EUR 159.4 billion a year ago, while EU28 imports edged down by 0.6% to EUR 166.3 billion.

Intra-Eurozone trade dropped by 5.6% year-on-year to EUR 133.7 billion in August, while Intra-EU28 trade volume fell by 4.3% to EUR 253.1 billion.

By 9:35 am GMT, the EUR/USD pair inched down by 0.06% to $1.1026.