EU TRADE DEFICIT SHRINKS TO EURO 0.9 BILLION IN FEBRUARY.

The European Union's trade deficit shrank to Euro 0.9 billion in February this year, after an alarming Euro 6.2 billion deficit in January, according to provisional figures released on May 27 by the EU's Statistical Office, Eurostat, in Luxembourg. EU exports in February were Euro 53.4 billion (down 8% from the Euro 58 billion recorded in February 1998), while imports weighed in at Euro 54.3 billion (down 7% on the Euro 58.4 billion posted the year before), Eurostat said. Within the EU, the trade dispatches were Euro 97.7 billion in February, 5% lower than the Euro 103.0 billion the year before.However, as an indication of the cyclical nature of trade, Eurostat can point to dispatches as high as Euro 110.1 billion in October, and as low as Euro 80.4 billion in August. And the EU's trade balance was as high as a Euro 7.7 billion surplus last July...