The euro zone's trade surplus widened in February from a year earlier on rising exports with imports unchanged, Reuters quoted the European Union's statistics office Eurostat as saying on Tuesday. Exports from the 18 countries using the euro increased by 3 percent on the year after a 1 percent rise in January, while imports were flat when compared with a year earlier, data showed. The annual data are non-seasonally adjusted. The foreign trade surplus of the 9.5 trillion euro economy rose to 13.6 billion euros ($18.8 billion) in February, compared with a 9.8 billion euro surplus in the same period of 2013, and widened from a revised 0.8 billion euro surplus in January. On a seasonally adjusted basis, exports continued to rebound after steadily declining through October, November and December, and showed a 1.2 percent increase on the month in February while imports edged up 0.6 percent month-on-month. Exports from southern European countries continue to rise, although Greece's seasonally adjusted exports fell 6.1 percent, while Portugal's exports rose 4.3 percent in February. Germany, Europe's largest economy, saw exports rising by 2.6 percent on the month on a seasonally adjusted basis in February and imports up by 0.8 percent. The bloc's second-largest economy, France, reported a 1.2 percent monthly increase in exports, seasonally adjusted, with imports falling 7.3 percent.
