Eurozone current account slides into deficit: ECB

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

FRANKFURT (AFP) — The European Central Bank said Wednesday that the eurozone payments current account had an estimated deficit of 10.6 billion euros (16.7 billion dollars) in January.

The current account deficit -- the widest measure of eurozone trade and financial transactions with countries outside the 15-nation area -- came in higher than the 7.0 billion euros forecast by analysts polled by Thomson Financial News.

"This reflected deficits in current transfers (10.3 billion euros) and income (4.7 billion euros) which were only partly compensated for by a surplus in services (4.2 billion euros)," the bank said in a statement.

Provisional ECB figures are often subject to marked revisions however, and make comparisons difficult.

For December, for...