2021.02.1908:40:00UTC+00Eurozone Current Account Surplus Highest In Over 3 Years

Eurozone's current account surplus in December rose to its highest level since late 2017, boosted surplus in goods and services trade as well as in primary income. The seasonally adjusted current account surplus rose to EUR 36.65 billion from EUR 25.15 billion in November, data from the European Central Bank showed Friday. A year ago, the surplus was EUR 20 billion. The latest surplus figure was the highest since November 2017, when it was EUR 38.36 billion.

The surplus in goods trade grew to EUR 38.00 billion from EUR 34.00 billion in the previous month. The services trade surplus rose to EUR 11 billion from EUR 10 billion. The primary income account surplus was steady at EUR 1 billion. These were a deficit in the secondary income account, which though narrowed to EUR 14 billion from EUR 19 billion in the previous month. In 2020 the current account surplus fell to EUR 248 billion or 2.2 percent of euro area GDP from EUR 281 billion or 2.3 percent in 2019. The decline was driven by reductions in the surpluses for services and primary income, but also by a larger deficit for secondary income. These were partly offset by a larger surplus in the goods trade. Net investments by euro area residents in foreign assets rose to EUR 46 billion in 2020 from EUR 25 billion in 2019. Investments in euro area assets grew to EUR 166 billion from EUR 97 billion. Purchases of foreign debt securities by euro area residents increased to EUR 436 billion and that of foreign equity rose to EUR 207 billion. In contrast, non-residents' net purchases of euro area debt securities decreased to EUR 47 billion and that of euro area equity decreased to EUR 117 billion.