January 19 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's current account balance showed a surplus of 2.52 billion euro ($3.09 billion) in the eleven months through November, compared to a surplus of 2.8 billion euro in the year-ago period, the central bank, BNB, said on Friday.
The current account surplus in the period under review was equivalent to 4.9% of the projected GDP for the year, down from 5.9% of GDP in January-November 2016, the BNB said in a monthly balance of payments report citing preliminary data.
The country's trade gap widened to 1.56 billion euro, or 3.1% of GDP, in the January-November period from 829 million euro, or 1.7% of GDP, in the same period last year. Exports grew 12.9% year-on-year while imports expanded 15.8%. In January-November 2016, exports added 4.2% on the year, while imports shrank 2.7%.
Details follow (in millions of euro):
|
Jan-Nov'17 |
Jan-Nov'16 |
CURRENT ACCOUNT |
2,523.1 |
2,835.9 |
- Trade in goods and services (net) |
1,395.8 |
2,204.7 |
- Trade in goods (net) |
-1,563.2 |
-829.0 |
- Trade in services (net) |
2,959.1 |
3,033.8 |
- Primary income (net) |
-348.2 |
-900.5 |
- Secondary income (net) |
1,475.5 |
1,531.7 |
CAPITAL ACCOUNT |
426.5 |
1,043.9 |
FINANCIAL ACCOUNT |
1,814.8 |
4,158.6 |
Source: BNB
Bulgaria closed 2016 with a current account surplus of 1.8 billion euro, compared to a surplus of 172.4 million euro in the previous year. Trade deficit totalled 1.79 billion euro, or 3.8% of GDP, in 2016, as compared to a trade gap of 2.6 billion euro, or 5.8% of GDP, in 2015.
($=0.8144 euro)