Eurozone Current Account Surplus Shrinks In November

(RTTNews) - The euro area current account surplus declined sharply in November as the surplus on goods trade decreased and the primary income deficit widened, the European Central Bank said on Tuesday.

The seasonally and working-day-adjusted current account surplus fell to EUR 9.0 billion from EUR 27.0 billion in October. In the same period last year, the surplus totaled EUR 23.0 billion.

The surplus on goods trade shrank to EUR 24 billion from EUR 33 billion in the previous month, and the surplus on services decreased to EUR 12 billion from EUR 13 billion.

The primary income deficit rose to EUR 12.0 billion from EUR 3 billion. At the same time, the shortfall in secondary income narrowed to EUR 15 billion from EUR 16 billion.

In the twelve months to November, the current account surplus was EUR 267 billion, or 1.7 percent of GDP. However, this was down from EUR 414 billion, or 2.7 percent of GDP, in the same period last year.