Euro area trade surplus in goods narrows sharply in March

The Eurozone's foreign trade surplus in goods with the rest of the world narrowed significantly in March, amid a jump in imports.

According to Eurostat, in seasonally adjusted terms, the bloc's surplus fell from €23.1bn for February to €13.0bn in March.

Offsetting that drop, February's print was revised higher from a preliminary estimate of €18.4bn.

Exports grew at a month-on-month pace of 0.3% to reach €191.6bn, whilst purchases from overseas surged by 5.6% to hit €178.6bn.

Germany contributed the bulk of the surplus, to the tune of €18.7bn, followed by €4.3bn from Italy, while France's surplus stood at €2.3bn.

Spain on the other hand registered a deficit of €1.3bn.

Separately, Eurostat reported that employment in the single currency bloc dipped by 0.3% quarter-on-quarter over the first three months of 2021.

That followed a rise of 0.4% in the last quarter of 2020.

Commenting on the latest employment figures, Claus Vistesen, chief Eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "The EZ labour market seems to have come through the recession relatively unscathed, and with activity now set to rise in Q2, we doubt that the usual lag between falls in GDP and employment matter.

"Put differently, we're looking for a significant increase in employment in Q2, in line with our forecast for rising GDP and upbeat survey data for employment expectations."