FRANKFURT (Reuters) -The euro zone economy continued to expand at a modest but respectable pace in the second quarter while the trade surplus surged in September on healthy exports to the United States, data from Eurostat showed on Friday.
The 20-nation currency bloc has proven unexpectedly resilient to trade strife and uncertainty this year but its rate of expansion remains lukewarm compared to international peers and economists see few catalysts to generate faster growth.
Its economy grew by 0.2%
on the quarter, in line with a first estimate from late October, as France and Spain balanced out Germany, which is stagnating for the third straight year on weak output, poor exports and muted private consumption.
Compared to a year earlier, GDP in the euro zone grew by 1.4% just ahead of expectations for 1.3% in a Reuters poll of economists, propelled by Spain's continued strong performance.
Separate data showed that the bloc's trade surplus surged to 19.4 billion euros ($22.62 billion) in September from just 1.9 billion a month earlier, as exports to the U.S. grew quicker than imports, despite a raft of tariffs that had hit demand earlier.
The European Union as a whole had a trade surplus of 22.2 billion euros with the U.S. in September, above a 6.5 billion euro figure in August and 18.5 billion a year earlier.
The overall surplus was driven by chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, and machinery sales. This could signal a one-off surge, however, as pharmaceuticals are a historically volatile component, especially because of the large presence of global drug firms located in Ireland for tax reasons.
The euro zone's trade surplus for the month is the highest since March, when U.S. firms stocked up on goods before tariffs kicked in.
Still, economists have warned against reading too much into monthly numbers since they are affected by one-off factors, including frontloading around tariffs.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; editing by Mark Heinrich)
