Eurozone Current Account Surplus At 5-Month Low

(RTTNews) - The euro area current account surplus declined to a five-month low in August, the European Central Bank said Thursday.

The current account surplus fell to EUR 31 billion from EUR 41 billion in the previous month. This was the lowest surplus since March. The expected level was EUR 42 billion.

The surplus on goods trade fell to EUR 32 billion from EUR 37 billion, while that on services trade rose to EUR 19 billion from EUR 18 billion.

Primary income showed a shortfall of EUR 4 billion compared to nil balance a month ago. At the same time, the deficit on secondary income widened to EUR 15 billion from EUR 14 billion.

In the twelve months to August, the current account surplus increased to EUR 408 billion from EUR 138 billion last year. The surplus was equivalent to 2.8 percent of euro area GDP.

In financial account, euro area residents' net acquisitions of non-euro area portfolio investment securities totaled EUR 510 billion and non-residents' net acquisitions of euro area portfolio investment securities came in at EUR 718 billion in the twelve months to August, data showed.