FRANKFURT—The euro zone's current-account surplus surged in January to its highest level in almost five years, reflecting a strong balance of trade for goods and services, European Central Bank data published Monday showed.
But the currency bloc saw strong outflows of both portfolio and direct investment during the month.
The current-account surplus increased to €4.5 billion ($5.93 billion) in January, the highest level since March 2007, from an upwardly revised surplus of €3.4 billion in December. The ECB last month estimated March's surplus at €2.0 billion.
The data are adjusted for seasonal effects and take account of the number of working days in each month.
The ECB said surpluses for goods, services and income were only partly offset by a deficit for current transfers.
The bloc posted a €4.9 billion surplus in the trade of goods in January, compared with a surplus of €6.2 billion the previous month, while December's €5 billion surplus in services fell to a €3.9 billion surplus in January. However, the surplus for income rose to €3.0 billion from €1.3 billion the previous month.
In the euro zone's non-seasonally adjusted financial account, combined direct and portfolio investment showed net outflows of roughly €53 billion in January, down from inflows of about €4.5 billion in December.
Net portfolio investment swung sharply into negative territory, with net outflows of €46.9 billion in January after inflows of €4.6 billion in December. Outflows from debt instruments surged to €51.9 billion from €12.9 billion the previous month, and investors bought a net €5.0 billion of euro-zone equities in January, compared with inflows of €17.4 billion the previous month.
The euro zone's 12-month cumulated current-account deficit shrank to €21.2 billion in January from €50.6 billion a year earlier, due to a rise in surpluses for goods, services and income.
Also Monday, Italian industrial orders fell sharply in January on the month, data showed, as both domestic and international orders declined strongly.
Industrial orders dropped 7.4% in January from December in seasonally adjusted terms, while falling 5.6% from January 2011 in unadjusted terms, national statistics institute Istat said.
The fall came after a downwardly revised 5.2% monthly jump in December and a 0.2% rise in November.
Domestic orders declined 7.6% in January from December, with foreign orders down 7.3%, according to Istat's data.
The negative monthly data on industrial orders seems to confirm the negative trend showed by last week's reading of Italian gross domestic growth, which contracted for the second consecutive quarter in the last three months of 2011, confirming that Italy's economy fell into recession.
Meanwhile, Istat also reported that Italian industrial sales fell 4.9% in January from the previous month, with domestic sales declining 5.2% and international sales falling 4.5%.
Industrial sales were 4.4% lower in January compared with the same period a year earlier in workday-adjusted terms, according to Istat.
—Giada Zampano and Liam Moloney contributed to this article.
