Greece's current account surplus for July increased from a year ago, boosted by the first tranche of bailout funds from the European Central Bank, data released by the Bank of Greece showed on Wednesday.
The current account surplus rose to EUR 2.2727 billion from EUR 507.9 million in the same month last year. This development was mainly due to an inflow of EUR 1.5 billion representing the first installment of the income on the Securities Markets Programme (SMP) portfolio accruing to the ECB payable to Greece, the bank said.
Meanwhile, the trade deficit shrunk to EUR 1.517 billion from EUR 1.725 billion, mainly due to a EUR 164 million decline in the net oil import bill. Excluding oil and ships, the trade gap narrowed to EUR 675.2 million from EUR 691.7 million, helped by higher export receipts and import bill. Net payments for purchases of ships also dropped by EUR 27 million.
During the January-July period, the current account deficit declined to EUR 156 million from EUR 6.402 billion in the same period last year. The narrowing was largely due to a sharp decline of EUR 3 billion in the trade deficit and increases in the current transfers and services surpluses.
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