Trade balance in the black for the first time since 1999

With a positive balance of €35bn in the first six months of 2013 – compared to a deficit of €65.1bn in the same period last year – "the EU has reported its first half-yearly trade surplus since 1999,” reports El País, quoting Eurostat figures that are not yet available online. The UK and Germany top the list of countries contributing to the upsurge, improving their respective trade balances by €31.1bn and €13.2bn. However, the most surprising data comes from countries in difficulty, remarks the newspaper —

Italy and Spain, which weighed on the Eurozone’s emergence from recession in the last quarter, nonetheless helped the EU to progress from an overall deficit to a surplus.

Italy's deficit of €13.9bn combined with the €6.4bn of Spain — “the EU member state which posted the biggest trade deficit reduction” — complete the quartet of countries that were the main contributors to the turnaround, points out El País. However, the Spanish daily notes that the positive trend could be threatened by higher energy prices and in particular higher oil prices.