BRUSSELS, May 18 (Reuters) - The euro zone's trade balance swung into a surplus in March from deficits the previous month and a year earlier as exports dipped marginally more slowly than imports amid the worst recession in decades, data showed.
The unadjusted external trade surplus of the 16 countries using the euro came to 400 million euros ($541.7 million) against deficits of 1 billion euros in February and 2.3 billion in March 2008, the European Union's statistics office said.
Unadjusted exports fell 17 percent year-on-year in March to 108.0 billion euros while imports dropped 18 percent to 107.6 billion, the Eurostat figures showed.
The euro zone economy contracted 2.5 percent quarter-on-quarter in the January-March period -- its deepest fall on record -- in what economists said was likely the low point of the recession.
Adjusted for seasonal swings, the euro zone had a 2.1 billion euro trade deficit in March, but that was up from a 2.9 billion gap in February and a 6.6 billion shortfall in January.
Seasonally adjusted exports rose 1.4 percent month-on-month in March while imports gained 0.6 percent.
Despite the global recession, exports from the euro zone's biggest economy, Germany, grew by 7.5 percent month-on-month in March to 26 billion euros and its trade surplus rose to 5.1 billion euros from 3.4 billion in February.
A more detailed breakdown of the numbers for March was not yet available, but data for January to February showed the euro zone's trade surpluses with its top two trading partners -- Britain and the United States -- fell.
The trade deficit with China eased slightly as did trade gaps with Russia, Japan and Norway. (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; editing by Dale Hudson)