Greek current account gap shrinks in December, smaller trade gap helps
Greece's current account deficit shrank in December from the same month a year earlier as a lower trade gap helped to offset a drop in the services balance surplus, the Bank of Greece said on Friday.
"This amelioration is attributable to the improvement in the balance of goods," the central bank said. "The value of exports of goods and services declined by 13.8 percent, but the value of imports fell more – by 16.8 percent – so the deficit of the balance of goods and services shrank by 371 million euros."
The data showed the deficit reached 780 million euros from 1.87 billion euros in December 2014. Tourism revenues rose by 12.2 percent year-on-year to 205 million.
In 2015 as a whole, Greece posted a current account deficit of 7.5 million euros, the data showed, helped by higher tourism revenues – its biggest foreign currency earner. [Reuters]
