May 18 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's current account showed a surplus of 185.1 million euro ($190 million) in January-March, up from 113.7 million euro a year earlier, the central bank, BNB, said on Wednesday.
The current account surplus was equivalent to 0.4% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), up from 0.3% in the year-ago period, BNB said in a statement.
In March alone, the current account showed a surplus of 88.8 million euro, compared to a surplus of 431.8 million euro for the same month last year.
Bulgaria's first quarter external trade deficit shrank to 215.6 million euro, or 0.5% of GDP, from 517 million euro, or 1.2% of GDP, a year earlier.
Exports in the three-month period remained flattish at 5.2 billion euro, while imports went down 5.2% to 5.4 billion euro. In the first quarter of 2015, exports grew 14.2% and imports rose 5.3%.
Details follow (in millions of euro):
BALANCE OF PAYMENTS |
Jan-March'16 |
Jan-March'15 |
March'16 |
March'15 |
CURRENT ACCOUNT |
185.1 |
113.7 |
88.8 |
431.8 |
-Trade balance |
-215.6 |
-517.0 |
-167.1 |
-129.9 |
-Balance of services |
143.9 |
270.7 |
10.9 |
49.7 |
-Primary income |
-227.3 |
-388.8 |
-78.2 |
-125.5 |
-Secondary income |
484.1 |
748.8 |
323.2 |
637.5 |
CAPITAL ACCOUNT |
547.7 |
288.8 |
369.6 |
223.3 |
FINANCIAL ACCOUNT |
904.1 |
736.2 |
486.8 |
737.3 |
source: BNB
($=0.8873 euro)