- Peter Vanden Houte, an economist at ING Group NV
The Eurozone posted an increase in its trade surplus in December, however, lower than expected, as imports fell steeper than exports, data by European Union's statistics office Eurostat showed on Friday. The unadjusted trade surplus of the 17 countries sharing the Euro was 11.7 billion euros, higher than 8.0 billion euros a year earlier, but lower compared with 13.0 billion a month ago. Exports of goods from the region fell 1.8% in December from November, after growth of 0.6% the previous month, while imports lost 3.0%, illustrating the fragile state of domestic demand in the currency bloc. The reason for such weak demand is that households in many countries of the region have suffered decline in disposable income, due to the increase in food and energy prices, and have refrained from spending heavily on consumer goods amid concerns over the economy.
"The outlook for 2013 remains subdued," said Peter Vanden Houte, an economist at ING Group NV in Brussels. "While a gradual improvement of the world economy is likely to support European exports, domestic demand is bound to remain very weak."
"While sentiment towards the region has improved, the hard news on the economy remains distinctly weak," said Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics in London.
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