The Czech Republic's current account showed an unexpected deficit for March, owing to deficits on the income balance and the balance of current transfers, data from the central bank showed on Wednesday.
The current account revealed a shortfall of CZK 35.799 billion, while economists were looking for a surplus of CZK 9.5 billion. In February, the surplus was CZK 27.685 billion. In March last year, the current account deficit was CZK 2.884 billion.
It was the first deficit since December and the biggest since June 2011, when the shortfall was CZK 44.889 billion.
The income account showed a deficit of CZK 59.358 billion, which was bigger than February's shortfall of CZK 7.045 billion. The current transfers account logged a deficit of CZK 3.178 billion in March, in contrast to a surplus of CZK 10.690 billion recorded in the previous month.
The balance of current transfers included a deficit of CZK 1.8 billion on transfers from the Czech Republic to the EU budget, while the capital account recorded transfers of CZK 0.3 billion from the EU budget, the central bank said.
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