Chile's current account balance of payments surplus sharply narrowed in the third quarter to $329.6 million from $2.1219 billion in the second quarter of this year, the central bank said on Friday. Chile's current account surplus was $1.2365 billion in the third quarter of last year.
The central bank said the surplus in the third quarter of this year was equal to less than 1 percent of the gross domestic product. For the second quarter, the current account surplus was equal to about 7 percent of GDP, the central bank said in August.
The current account is the broadest measure of a country's trade in goods, services such as tourism and investment income and changes in the figure are watched by foreign exchange traders and analysts.
The central bank said the current account surplus shrank mainly because of a falling trade surplus which narrowed to $5.13 billion in the third quarter from $7.74 billion in the second quarter and $6.3 billion in the third quarter of last year. The central bank also cited a net outflow of services income of $133 million in the third quarter.