December 19 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's current account balance showed a surplus of 2.68 billion euro ($3.16 billion) in the first ten months of 2017, compared to a surplus of 2.67 billion euro in the prior-year period, the central bank, BNB, said on Tuesday.
The current account surplus in the period under review was equivalent to 5.4% of the projected 2017 GDP, down from 5.6% of GDP in January-October 2016, the BNB said in a monthly balance of payments report citing preliminary data.
The country's trade gap widened to 1.27 billion euro, or 2.5% of GDP, in the first ten months from 753.8 million euro, or 1.6% of GDP, in the same period last year. Exports grew 13.7% year-on-year while imports expanded 15.8%. In January-October 2016, exports added 1.0% on the year, while imports shrank 1.6%.
Details follow (in millions of euro):
|
Jan-Oct'17 |
Jan-Oct'16 |
CURRENT ACCOUNT |
2,684.0 |
2,673.6 |
- Trade in goods and services (net) |
1,630.9 |
2,180.2 |
- Trade in goods (net) |
-1,270.4 |
-753.8 |
- Trade in services (net) |
2,901.3 |
2,934.0 |
- Primary income (net) |
-360.2 |
-854.5 |
- Secondary income (net) |
1,413.3 |
1,347.8 |
CAPITAL ACCOUNT |
374.7 |
1,009.1 |
FINANCIAL ACCOUNT |
1,813.3 |
3,568.3 |
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 the previous year.