LISBON: Portugal’s current account surplus rose 20 percent in the first 10 months of 2015 from a year earlier to reach 1.68 billion euros ($1.84 billion), the Bank of Portugal said.
In January-October, the country also had a surplus of 3 billion euros in the combined balance of trade in goods and services, 27 percent higher than a year ago, as the goods-only deficit shrank nearly 5 percent and the services surplus rose by about 3 percent, the data showed.
Portugal, which exited an international bailout in May last year, posted current account surpluses for the whole of 2013 and 2014 after two decades of deficits and is expected to report a surplus again this year.
Portugal’s economy grew 0.9 percent last year and is expected to expand 1.6 percent in 2015.
