13/1/2012: EU27 External Trade - Greece falling out of trade picture

As German lawmakers are putting pressure on the parties in the PSI negotiations in Greece with calls for Greece to exit the Euro to devalue and regain competitiveness have some serious basis in real economic performance of the country.

Today's data on trade balance across EU27 clearly shows that Greece is unable to sustain serious debt repayments under the current arrangements. Here are the details:

The first estimate for November 2011 euro area (EA17) trade surplus came in at €6.9 bn surplus, against the deficit of -€2.3 bn in November 2010. October 2011 trade balance was +€1.0 bn, against a surplus of +€3.1 bn in October 2010.

In November 2011 compared with October 2011, seasonally adjusted exports rose by 3.9%, while imports remained unchanged.

The first estimate for the November 2011 extra-EU27 posted trade deficit of -€7.2 bn, compared with a deficit of -€16.8 bn in November 2010. In October 2011 the trade balance extra-EU27 was -€11.2 bn, compared with -€9.5 bn in October 2010.

In November 2011 compared with October 2011, extra-EU27 seasonally adjusted exports rose by 2.8%, while imports fell by 0.6%.

EU27 detailed results for January to October 2011:

• The EU27 deficit for energy increased significantly (-€317.5 bn in January-October 2011 compared with -€246.4 bn in January-October 2010)
• Trade surplus for manufactured goods rose to +€198.9 bn compared with +€136.4 bn in the same period of 2010. 
• The highest increases were recorded for EU27 exports to Russia (+28%), Turkey (+23%), China (+21%) and India (+20%), and for imports from Russia (+26%), Norway (+21%), Brazil and India (both +20%). 
• The EU27 trade surplus increased slightly with the USA (+€60.8 bn in January-October 2011 compared with +€60.1 bn in January-October 2010) and more significantly with Switzerland (+€24.1 bn compared with +€16.6 bn) and Turkey (+€21.3 bn compared with +€14.7 bn). 
• The EU27 trade deficit fell with China (-€132.2 bn compared with -€139.8 bn), Japan (-€16.1 bn compared with -€18.3 bn) and South Korea (-€3.9 bn compared with -€9.6 bn), but increased with Russia (-€76.0 bn compared with -€61.1 bn) and Norway (-€38.7 bn compared with -€29.8 bn). 
• Concerning the total trade of Member States, the largest surplus was observed in Germany (+€129.2 bn in January-October 2011), followed by Ireland and the Netherlands (both +€35.9 bn) and Belgium (+€10.1 bn). The United Kingdom (-€98.2 bn) registered the largest deficit, followed by France (-€72.5 bn), Spain (-€40.1 bn), Italy (-€24.2 bn), Greece (-€16.9 bn), Portugal (-€13.3 bn) and Poland (-€12.0 bn).

Some charts:

The charts above clearly show that:

• Of all PIIGS, Ireland is the only country showing capacity to generate significant trade surpluses, with Irish merchandise trade surplus of €2.5bn in November being the second highest in EU 27 in absolute terms and the highest in terms relative to GDP. Exactly the same is true for Irish trade surplus recorded in October. Irish trade surplus in November was almost as large as the combined surpluses of all other countries with positive trade balance, ex-Germany (€2.9bn).
• In November 2011 Ireland posted the third fastest rate of mom growth in exports in EU27 (+8.3%), the effect compounded by the 9.4% drop (4th deepest in EU27) in imports.
• In contrast, Greece posted a 14.4% contraction in its exports in November 2011 compared to October 2011 - the largest drop of all countries in EU27. Greek trade balance in October stood at a deficit €0.1 billion and in November 2011 this widened to €0.2 billion.

So in terms of trade, Ireland is not Greece, and Greece is not showing any signs of ability to sustain internal debt adjustment within the euro structure.