BRUSSELS, July 17 (Reuters) - The euro zone recorded a trade surplus in May as imports contracted more than exports but the balance was smaller than expected, data showed on Friday.
The seasonally unadjusted trade surplus of the 16-country area totalled 1.9 billion euros ($2.7 billion), against a deficit of 3.8 billion euros a year before and a 2.7 billion surplus in April, the European Union statistics office said.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected a surplus of 2.7 billion euros for May.
Year-on-year, exports plunged 24 percent but imports fell even more, 27 percent, underlining the weakness of domestic and external demand amid the global economic downturn.
Seasonally adjusted, the surplus came to only 800 million euros, after 700 million in April, but it pointed to the same improving trend following large deficits in January, February and March.
Month-on-month, seasonally adjusted euro zone imports fell 2.8 percent while exports dropped 2.7 percent.
Detailed data for May was not yet available, but a breakdown for January-April showed a sharp fall in the trade deficit in energy but also a smaller trade surplus in manufactured goods.
The euro zone's trade deficit with China eased in January-April to 32.8 billion euros from 34.7 billion in the same period of 2008 while the trade deficit with energy exporter Russia more than halved to 7.2 billion euros. (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, editing by Dale Hudson)