THE European Union turned a first half 1994 external trade deficit of 2.9 billion ECUs (£2.3 billion) into a surplus of ECU8.4 billion in the first half of 1995, figures published yesterday showed.

The surplus in the first six months of last year was more than four times larger than the ECU2.0 billion surplus the 15 nation bloc generated in the whole of 1994.

Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Austria and Denmark all clocked up trade surpluses with non EU countries in the first half of 1995, Eurostat, the European Commission's statistical office, said.

The German surplus was ECU12.1 billion, followed by France (ECU7.2 billion), Italy (ECU5.4 billion), Sweden (ECU4.2 billion), Finland (ECU2.6 billion), Austria (ECU1.8 billion), Denmark (ECU1.5 billion) and Ireland (ECU37 million).

The Dutch had the largest deficit in trade with non EU nations at ECU11.1 million, but the figure is distorted by the large volume of goods flowing through the country's ports.

Britain, which cannot claim trade distortions to anything like the same extent, ran up a deficit of ECU9.6 billion in the first half of 1995.