Euro trade surplus beats forecasts

The trade surplus for the 17 countries sharing the euro, unadjusted for seasonal swings, was 13.1 billion euros ($17.65bn) in September, compared with 8.6 billion euro surplus in the same period last year.

Analysts polled by Reuters expected a 10 billion euro surplus in September.

Adjusted for seasonal factors, the trade surplus was 14.3 billion euros as exports rose 1 per cent from August to September and imports fell 0.3 per cent.

Non-seasonally adjusted, exports rose 3 per cent on the year in September following a 6 per cent drop in August, while imports were flat in September after a 7 per cent drop in the previous month.

The cumulative surplus of the eurozone for the first nine months of the year more than doubled on the year to 109.6 billion euros, compared with 50.2 billion euro surplus in the same period of 2012.

The euro one recovery almost stalled in the third quarter after a return to growth in the second quarter, as France failed to sustain a rebound in the July to September period, underscoring how fragile the economic repairs remain.

The southern periphery, suffering from record joblessness, weak growth and painful austerity, continued to improve their trade balance as their competitiveness gets on a more sound foot- ing.