Eurozone Current Account Surplus Declines

(RTTNews) - The euro area current account surplus declined in July largely due to the decline in primary income, the European Central Bank said Friday.

The current account surplus fell to EUR 28 billion from EUR 35 billion in June. In the same period last year, the account showed a surplus of EUR 22 billion.

The surplus on goods trade doubled to EUR 36 billion from EUR 18 billion in the previous month, while the services surplus decreased to EUR 12 billion from EUR 16 billion.

These were partly offset by deficits for secondary income and primary income. The primary income registered a shortfall of EUR 2 billion compared to a surplus of EUR 17 billion in June. At the same time, the deficit on secondary income widened to EUR 18 billion from EUR 16 billion.

In the twelve months to July, the current account surplus totalled EUR 282 billion, or 1.7 percent of euro area GDP. This was down from EUR 298 billion or 1.9 percent of GDP a year earlier.

In financial account, euro area residents' net acquisitions of non-euro area portfolio investment securities totalled EUR 815 billion and non-residents' net acquisitions of euro area portfolio investment securities came in at EUR 1,156 billion in the twelve months to July.