The euro zone registered a current account surplus of €16.1 billion in the third quarter to September, compared with a deficit of €7 billion in the second quarter, according to provisional data from statistics office Eurostat.
The year-earlier quarter registered a surplus of €25.8 billion. The EU-15 posted a third quarter surplus of €26.4 billion, up from a surplus of €13.9 billion in the second quarter and of €24 billion a year earlier.
In the third quarter of 2003, the EU-15 external balance of trade in services recorded a surplus of €2.9 billion compared with a surplus of €6.8 billion a year earlier and of €5.9 billion in the second quarter.