Eurozone Trade Data Pleasantly Surprises

The euro climbed above $1.35 following data that showed the region's trade surplus was higher than expected. The common currency traded at $1.3513 at 7:15 GMT on Tuesday morning. Eurostat, the European Union's statistics reporting office, reported that exports from the 17 nation bloc rose in September while imports remained flat. The region's unadjusted trade surplus was 13.1 billion euros, nearly double last year's figure of 8.6 billion euros. According to Reuters, September's trade surplus was far below analysts' expectations of a 10 billion euro surplus. Data from the southern part of the eurozone was especially promising as countries which struggled through bailout programs, like Portugal, Spain and Greece, posted improving export figures. Portugal's exports grew by 3 percent from January to August and Spain and Greece both posted 5 percent increases in their exports. The posititve data helped offset some disappointment from previous GDP data which showed the region's recovery was sputtering. Third quarter GDP confirmed that the eurozone's recovery was quite fragile that the region still had a rocky road ahead. Moving forward the region's policymakers are likely to focus on creating unified banking rules and preparing their national banks for the European Central Bank's upcoming health checks. The ECB is set to perform a series of rigorous checks on banks' balance sheets before taking over as the region's banking supervisor. ECB President Mario Draghi has been blunt about the difficulty of the asset quality review process, saying that in order to maintain investors' trust in the banking review, some of the region's banks must fail.