The European deficit in external trade remains very high, in spite of the slight fall registered between December 2005 and January 2006. According to Eurostat data, the exponential increase of the energy deficit (from minus 148.3 billion euros in 2004 to minus 220.7 billion in 2005, especially to the advantage of Russia and Norway) has especially damaged the overall European situation. For the eurozone, the foreign trade deficit calculated at January 2006 rose to 10.8 billion euros, ten times higher than the same period last year. The overall deficit of the 25-member EU rose at the same date to 24.6 billion euros. Germany, Holland, Ireland and Sweden are the countries that registered the largest surpluses; Spain, France and Greece, on the contrary, are the States with the highest deficits. These results are offset, in part, by the positive figures relating to trade within the eurozone, which closed with a surplus of 23.3 billion euros in 2005, despite the over 100 billion deficit of the Eu as a whole.
