Bulgaria’s current and capital account showed a surplus of EUR 582.4 M in June, compared with a surplus of EUR 244.8 M in June 2013, the Bulgarian National Bank said on Thursday.

The current and capital account for the first half of this year showed a surplus of EUR 591.9 M, or 1.5% of the 2014 GDP estimated at EUR 40.497 M by the BNB. This compared with a surplus of EUR 270.4 M, or 0.7% of GDP, in H1 2013, as reported by the National Staistics Institute (NSI) in March.

The current account recorded a surplus of EUR 450.4 M in June 2014, up from a surplus of EUR 210 M in the same month of 2013. That surplus resulted from a surplus of EUR 336.8 M in the balance of services and a positive balance of EUR 288.4 M in current transfers, the BNB said.

In January – June 2014 the current account balance was positive at EUR 262.4 M (0.6% of GDP), compared with a surplus of EUR 129.5 M (0.3% of GDP) in the equivalent period last year.

The trade balance recorded a deficit of EUR 129.2 M in June 2014, down from a trade gap of EUR 305.5 M in June 2013.

First-half trade deficit increased to EUR 1.537 M (3.8% of GDP), compared with a gap of EUR 1.235.4 M (3.1% of GDP) in January – June 2013.

June exports (FOB) amounted to EUR 1.882 M, growing by EUR 124.2 M (7.1%) from June 2013. Imports (FOB) totalled EUR 2.012 M in June 2014, down EUR 52.1 M (2.5%) from the equivalent month of 2013.

In January – June, exports (FOB) totalled EUR 10.274 M, down by EUR 356.9 M (3.4%) year-on-year. In January – June 2013 exports grew by 7.6% year-on-year.

H1 2014 imports (FOB) decreased by EUR 55.3 M (down 0.5% year-on-year) to EUR 11.811 M. In January – June 2013 imports fell by 0.9% year-on-year.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Bulgaria showed a net inflow of EUR 91.8 M in June 2014, down from EUR 179.5 M in June last year. In January – June 2014 foreign direct investment in Bulgaria totalled EUR 490.7 M, or 1.2% of GDP, down from EUR 636.4 million (1.6% of GDP) in the same period last year.