BRUSSELS (BNO NEWS) — The European Union (EU) on Tuesday announced that both the euro area and the wider 27-nation EU region had a gross domestic product (GDP) increase of 0.2 percent during the year’s second quarter, compared to the previous quarter, which had previously posted growth rates of 0.8 percent.
The report was released by the EU’s statistical office, Eurostat, which its flash estimates also showed that the second quarter’s seasonally adjusted GDP had an increase of 1.7 percent in both zones, compared with the same quarter of the previous year. On a year-to-year basis, both zones also had positive marks during the first quarter, recording a 2.5 percent increase.
Comparatively, the U.S. had a GDP increase of 0.3 percent during the second quarter of the year, compared to the first quarter, which had marked a 0.1 percent increase as well. On a year-to-year basis, the GDP rose by 1.6 percent during the second quarter, following the first quarter’s increase of 2.2 percent.
Meanwhile, Japan, which has been facing its ongoing nuclear and post-earthquake crisis for the past months, recorded a GDP decrease by 0.3 percent in the second quarter, following a decrease of 0.9 percent in the first.
In a separate report, Eurostat revealed that the euro area’s global external trade surplus totaled to 900 million euros ($ 1.3 billion) in June, compared to the 700 million euros ($ 1 billion) in June 2010. In May, the euro area’s balance was 200 million euros ($ 287.5 million), compared with -4.9 billion (-$ 7 billion) in May 2010. On a month-to-month basis, June’s seasonally adjusted exports fell by 4.7 percent and imports by 4.1 percent.
The first estimate for the June extra-EU27 trade balance was a 12.2 billion euro ($ 17.5 billion) deficit, compared with -11.1 billion (-$ 15.9 billion) in June 2010. In May, the balance was -12.3 billion (-$ 17.7 billion) compared with -16 billion (-$ 23 billion) in May 2010. Also, its seasonally adjusted exports in June fell by 4.8 percent and imports by 3.8 percent, compared to the previous month.
