Europe's trade deficit with China has surged 25 percent in the
eight months through August.
The euro-area trade gap with China widened to 70 billion euros
(US$102 billion) from 55.9 billion euros in the year-earlier
period, the European Union's statistics office in Luxembourg said
on Friday.
China's yuan has dropped seven percent against the euro in the
last year, fueling tension over the growing imbalance, Bloomberg
News said.
China's export growth is dominated by products, including
electronics, toys and textiles, while euro-area economies such as
Germany, the region's largest, are reliant on machinery and heavy
equipment, according to Dominique Barbet, an economist at BNP
Paribas in Paris, lessening competition between the economies.
China abandoned the yuan's strict peg to the US dollar two years
ago.
While China remains a focal point for EU attention, a bigger
issue may be maintaining export growth in the face of a cooling US
economy.
(Shanghai Daily November 19, 2007)
