Bulgaria has registered the highest year-on-year growth of its exports of all EU 27 countries in the first nine months of 2010, according to latest Eurostat data.

Bulgaria's exports grew by 33% in January-September 2010 compared with the same period of 2009. It is followed by Latvia, whose exports grew by 29% year-on-year, Lithuania (28%), Estonia (28%), and Romania (26%).

Luxembourg is the only EU 27 country that registered a decrease of its exports in this period of -4%.

Sweden registered the highest growth of imports – by 30%, followed by Lithuania (29%), the Czech Republic (24%) and Slovakia (24%), followed by Estonia and the Netherlands with 23% each.

Bulgaria's imports grew by 9% year-on-year, while that of its northern neighbor Romania increased by 19%. Greece and Ireland – the two countries that have received EU bailout aid - are the only ones that saw their imports drop – by 12% and by 1% respectively.

Thus, in the first three quarters of 2010 Bulgaria's exports amounted to EUR 11.3 B, up from EUR 8.5 B in the same period of 2009; its imports were EUR 13.5 B, up from EUR 12.5 B.

Bulgaria's trade balance improved substantially even though it is still negative – in January-September 2010 it went down to EUR 2.3 B, from EUR 4 B in the same period of 2009.

Germany has the staggering trade surplus of EUR 113.5 B in the first nine months of 2010, followed by Ireland (EUR 31.8 B), the Netherlands (EUR 30 B), Belgium (EUR 14.1 B), Denmark (EUR 7.5 B), Sweden (EUR 5 B), Hungary (EUR 4 B), and the Czech Republic (EUR 3.7 B).

All other 19 EU member states have negative trade balances with the UK having the highest trade deficit of EUR 84.8 B, followed by France (EUR 46.3 B), Spain (EUR 39 B), Italy (EUR 19.2 B), Greece (EUR 17.7 B), Portugal (EUR 14.6 B), Poland (EUR 7 B), Romania (EUR 7 B), Austria (EUR 3.2 B), Luxembourg (EUR 2.5 B), Bulgaria (EUR 2.3 B).

In the first nine months of 2010, the Euro Area had an external trade surplus of EUR 5.2 B, up from EUR 4.8 B in the same period of 2009.

In October 2010 compared with September 2010, seasonally adjusted exports fell by 0.1%, and imports by 1.3%.

The first estimate for the October 2010 extra-EU 27 trade balance was a EUR 7.4 B deficit, compared with EUR -6.4 B in October 2009.

EU27 trade with all its major partners grew in January-September 2010 compared with January-September 2009. The most notable increases were recorded for exports to Brazil (+53%), China (+39%) and Turkey (+36%), and for imports from Russia (+37%), China (+30%) and India (+28%).

The EU27 trade surplus increased with the USA (+ EUR 52.8 B in January-September 2010 compared with + EUR 31.8 B in January-September 2009), Switzerland (+ EUR 13.8 B compared with + EUR 10.2 B) and Turkey (+ EUR 13.1 B compared with + EUR 5.8 B).

The EU27 trade deficit increased with China (- EUR 122.2 B compared with – EUR 97.8 B), Russia (- EUR 52.1 B compared with - EUR 35.0 B), Norway (- EUR 26.8 B compared with - EUR 24.5 B) and South Korea (- EUR 8.9 B compared with - EUR 8.6 B). The deficit remained stable with Japan (- EUR 15.9 B).

For additional reference view the Eurostat page HERE