Eurozone Current Account Surplus At 3-Month High

(RTTNews) - The euro area current account surplus rose to a three-month high in October, figures from the European Central Bank showed on Friday.

The current account surplus rose to EUR 25.7 billion in October from EUR 23.6 billion in September. The surplus hit the highest since July, when it was EUR 28.8 billion.

The increase reflects a moderate rise in services surplus and a fall in the primary income shortfall. The surplus on goods trade fell to EUR 31 billion from EUR 32 billion. Meanwhile, the surplus on services trade rose to EUR 13 billion from EUR 12 billion.

The shortfall on primary income narrowed to EUR 3 billion from EUR 4 billion. At the same time, the deficit on secondary income remained unchanged at EUR 16 billion.

In the twelve months to October, current account surplus was EUR 313 billion or 2.0 percent of euro area GDP, down from EUR 419 billion or 2.8 percent of GDP a year earlier.

In financial account, euro area residents' net acquisitions of non-euro area portfolio investment securities totaled EUR 829 billion and non-residents' net acquisitions of euro area portfolio investment securities was EUR 780 billion in the twelve months to October, the ECB said.