In 2025, the EU trade in goods balance registered a surplus of €128 billion, representing a decrease of €8 billion compared with 2024 (€136 billion).
Between 2015 and 2025, the EU recorded a trade surplus every year except for 2022, when the negative trade balance was driven by the deficit from the trade in the energy sector. In all other years, trade surpluses in machinery, vehicles, and chemicals and related products outweighed the deficits caused by energy.
The chemicals and related products group registered the largest increase in the last decade, doubling the surplus observed in 2015 from €128.3 billion to €256.7 billion.
The trade balance of the food and drink group also increased from €32.0 billion to €39.7 billion, and of other goods from €9.5 billion to €20.7 billion. By contrast, other manufactured goods changed from a surplus of €11.3 billion in 2015 to a deficit of €37.6 billion in 2025.
The deficit for energy increased from €226.4 billion in 2015 to €298.9 billion in 2025. Fluctuating prices have a large influence on this deficit which was lowest in 2020 at €157.2 billion and highest in 2022 at €649.5 billion.
This information comes from data on international trade in goods published recently by Eurostat. This article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.
EU trade balance by product groups, 2015-2025 (....)