International trade in goods within the euro area showed a deficit of 11.7 billion euros with the rest of the world in November, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office. The data indicates that the deficit for the European Union as a whole widened to 20,700 million euros compared with the same month last year. This release, issued on a Friday, highlights the ongoing balance of goods movements between the eurozone and global markets and how imports and exports have evolved in parallel during the month.
In November, euro area exports stood at 264,700 million euros, reflecting a year-on-year rise of 17.2 percent, while imports reached 276,300 million euros, up 20.2 percent. This divergence between export growth and import growth helps explain the persistent trade deficit seen in the trade of goods for the region as a whole. The data also shows that currency-exchange activity among the 19 euro-denominated countries reached 241,500 million euros, marking a 16.8 percent increase from November of the previous year, underscoring the role of intra-area settlements in shaping overall trade patterns.
Looking at the first eleven months of the year, exports of goods from the euro area to the rest of the world amounted to 2,638 million euros, while imports reached 2,943 million euros, indicating an increase of 18.9 percent for exports and 40.5 percent for imports. These figures reflect the rapid growth in both outbound and inbound trade, with imports expanding at a faster pace and contributing to the broader trade balance dynamics of the eurozone.
Within the single-currency area, intra-eurozone goods exchanges totaled 2,506 million euros, up 25.5 percent compared with January–November 2021. This growth signals resilient intra-regional commerce, even as the euro area faces external trade pressures and a widening external deficit for the month of November. The EU as a whole recorded a November deficit of 20,700 million euros, with exports increasing to 237,300 million euros—up 17.7 percent—and imports rising to 258,000 million euros, up 21.5 percent year over year. These movements illustrate the mixed gains in external demand alongside stronger import demand across member economies.
Comparing November data to a year earlier, the EU’s trade deficit stood at 10.7 billion euros in November 2021. In the January–November 2022 period, goods exports for the EU rose by 18.7 percent to 2,352 million euros, while imports surged by 44.8 percent to 2,777 million. Across the eleven months, the EU’s aggregate trade balance shows a substantial deficit totaling 418.4 billion euros, a sharp increase from the 69.5 billion euros recorded in January–November 2021, underscoring the intensified trade pressures faced by the bloc during this period.
Within the broader world-trade context, the EU’s external deficits and surpluses reflect varied performances among major trading partners. The simplified summary shows a notable deficit with non-EU partners in November, paired with robust export activity within the EU and a strong upward trajectory in intra-EU exchanges. For reference, external trade developments in January–November 2022 indicate a EU deficit with non-EU economies that is offset in part by the internal exchange momentum among euro-area members, while global partners such as the United States and the United Kingdom posted their own trade balances in relation to EU trade flows.