BRUSSELS, Feb 22: The 12-nation euro zone had an estimated 49.6 billion euros ($43.15bn) trade surplus with the rest of the world in 2001, up from a 5.1 billion surplus in 2000, Eurostat, the EU’s statistics branch, announced on Friday.

The full 15-nation European Union had a foreign trade deficit of 45.4 billion euros in 2001, compared with a 91-billion-euro deficit in 2000.

The first euro-zone estimate for December 2001 was an 8.7-billion-euro surplus, compared with a 0.7-billion-euro deficit in December 2000. The revised November 2001 surplus was 7 billion euros.

The first EU-15 estimate for December 2001 was for a 1.7-billion-euro surplus, compared with a 6.2 billion deficit in December 2000, said Eurostat.

In November 2001, there was a revised surplus of 0.2 billion euros, against a 7.9-billion-euro deficit in November 2000.

During the first 11 months of 2001, the energy deficit stabilized — from 108.7 billion in January to November compared with 106.7 billion, while the surplus for machinery and vehicles increased from 40.2 billion to 74.6 billion.

EU-15 trade with its major partners was mixed, with falls in imports of 12 percent from Japan and 1.0 per cent from the US, and a 33-per cent decline in exports to Turkey.

The main trade increases were in exports to Russia (40 per cent), China (20 per cent), the Czech Republic (15 per cent), and in imports from the Czech Republic and Turkey (both up 17 per cent), and Poland (15 per cent).

EU-15 trade with the US showed an increased EU surplus of 40.3 billion euros in January-November 2001 compared with 31.8 billion in the same period in 2000, while EU-15 trade with Japan showed a decrease in the EU deficit, from 38.9 billion to 29.2 billion.

The highest EU-15 trade deficit in the first 11 months of last year was with China, at 42.6 billion euros, and the highest surplus was with the US, said Eurostat.

In total trade with member states, the largest surplus was with Germany at 78.7 billion euros, followed by Ireland with 33.8 billion. Britain had the largest deficit with 61 billion, followed by Spain with 33.8 billion.—AFP