FRANKFURT—The euro zone's current-account surplus beat expectations again in December as the block's trade surplus continued to climb, European Central Bank data showed Monday.
The surplus is a welcome sign for the embattled euro zone as it means the region is exporting more goods than it imports, which in theory should provide a boost to its economic output.
The current-account surplus, a broad measure of an economy's international transactions, fell slightly to €13.9 billion ($18.57 billion) in December from €15.9 billion the previous month, although it was above the €11.5 billion surplus expected by analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.
The strong end to the year helped drive the bloc's current-account surplus for 2012 as a whole to €116.1 billion, or around 1.2% of gross domestic product, from just €8.9 billion in 2011, the ECB said.
November's surplus reading was raised from an initial estimate of €14.8 billion published last month, which was already the highest monthly level since the euro was established in 1999. The data are adjusted for seasonal effects and take account of the number of working days in each month.
In the euro zone's nonseasonally adjusted financial account, combined direct and portfolio investment showed net outflows of €21 billion in December, after net inflows of €30 billion the previous month.
For 2012 as a whole, net inflows of direct and portfolio investment fell to €13 billion compared with inflows of €119 billion the previous year. The decrease "was primarily the result of a switch from net sales to net purchases of foreign securities by euro area residents," the ECB said.
