Eurozone Current Account Surplus Declines

(RTTNews) - The euro area current account surplus declined in January as the surplus on services trade weakened, data from the European Central Bank revealed on Friday.

The current account surplus fell to EUR 35 billion from EUR 38 billion in December.

The decline was largely driven by the fall in surplus on services trade to EUR 12 billion from EUR 18 billion. The surplus on primary income halved to EUR 2 billion from EUR 4 billion.

At the same time, the deficit on secondary income narrowed to EUR 14 billion from 17 billion. On the other hand, the goods trade surplus rose to EUR 35 billion from EUR 33 billion.

In the twelve months to January, current account surplus totaled EUR 408 billion, or 2.7 percent of euro area GDP, up from EUR 280 billion or 1.9 percent a year earlier.

In financial account, euro area residents' net acquisitions of non-euro area portfolio investment securities totaled EUR 677 billion and non-residents' net acquisitions of euro area portfolio investment securities came in at EUR 784 billion in the twelve months to January.