The Eurozone trade balance with the rest of the world fell into deficit in November last year as imports rose more than exports, the European Union
(EU)'s statistics office Eurostat said on Friday.
In November, the eurozone external trade balance gave a 0.4 billion euro (0.5 billion U.S. dollars) deficit, compared with a surplus of 3.1 billion euros (4.1 billion dollars) a year ago and a surplus of 4.7 billion euros (6.3 billion dollars) in October 2010.
Year on year, eurozone exports rose 24 percent, while imports increased 28 percent.
The 27-nation EU registered a larger deficit in November. Its trade balance with the rest of the world was a 14.7 billion euro (19.6 billion dollar) deficit, compared with a deficit of 7.3 billion euros (9.7 billion dollars) in November 2009 and 7.9 billion euros (10.5 billion dollars) in October 2010.
During the first 10 months of last year, EU trade with all its major partners grew compared with the same period of 2009. The most notable increases were recorded for exports to Brazil, China and Turkey, and for imports from Russia, China and India.
The EU's exports to China rose 38 percent, while imports increased 31 percent, according to the Eurostat.