18.08.201007:22:00UTC+00Greek June Current Account Deficit Narrows

Greece's current account deficit narrowed from a year ago, official data showed Wednesday.

The current account deficit for June was EUR 1.94 billion, smaller than EUR 2.31 billion last year, the central bank reported. The improvement was mainly attributable to a decrease in the trade deficit and, secondarily, to a rise in the surplus of the services balance and a drop in the deficit of the current transfers balance, the bank said. These developments were partly offset by an increase in the income account deficit.

The merchandise trade deficit for June was EUR 2.27 billion, smaller than EUR 2.55 billion last year. Excluding oil and ships, the shortfall was EUR 1.27 billion versus EUR 1.70 billion last year. The net payments for purchases of ships and the net oil import bill rose by EUR 113 million and EUR 38 million, respectively.

The surplus in the services account rose to EUR 1.71 billion in June from EUR 1.56 billion a year ago. The increase was due to a EUR 291 million hike in net transport receipts, while net travel receipts dropped EUR 210 million year-on-year.

The deficit of the current transfers balance almost halved year-on-year, mainly due to lower general government payments to the community budget, the central bank said. The deficit figure was EUR 70.1 million, down from EUR 144.5 million last year.

The income account had a shortfall of EUR 1.32 billion, larger than EUR 1.181 billion in June 2009. The widening was almost exclusively due to higher net interest, dividend and profit payments, the bank said.

In June, the combined current account and capital transfers balance, which represents the economy's external financing requirements, had a deficit of EUR 2 billion, compared with a deficit of EUR 2.2 billion last year.

During the first half of the year, the current account deficit was EUR 14.52 billion versus EUR 14.49 billion in the same period last year. For the first half of 2010, the deficit of the combined current account and capital transfers balance was EUR 14.4 billion, up 5.9% from EUR 13.6 billion in the same period of last year.

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