EU trade deficit with China decline in first 10 months of 2011

BRUSSELS - The trade deficit of the European Union (EU) with China decreased to 132 billion euros ($174.8 billion) for the first 10 months of 2011 from 140 billion euros registered in the same period in 2010, EU's statistics office said Monday.

The shrinking trade deficit resulted from EU's exports to China growing much faster than its imports from China, Eurostat said in a statement on its website.

EU's exports to China grew by 21 percent, from 92 billion euros in the first 10 months of 2010 to 112 billion in the first 10 months of 2011, while imports rose by 5 percent, from 232 billion to 244 billion, according Eurostat.

In the first 10 months of 2011, China was the EU's second largest trading partner after the United States, accounting for 9 percent of EU's total exports and 17 percent of EU's imports, Eurostat said.

Over the same period, Germany accounted for almost half of EU's exports to China at 48 percent, or 530 billion euros, while the largest European economy was also the largest EU importer from China, accounting for 22 percent of EU's total imports from China, Eurostat said.