The European Union's external current account registered a deficit of 32 billion euros (40.32 billion US dollars) in the fourth quarter of 2005, as compared to a deficit of 23.1 billion euros (29.1 billion dollars) in the previous quarter and a surplus of 4.1 billion euros (5.2 billion dollars) a year earlier, Eurostat said Friday.

The EU witnessed a sharp rise in the goods deficit to 29.8 billion euros (37.6 billion dollars) in the fourth quarter last year, from 10 billion euros (12.6 billion dollars) a year ago, while the surplus of the services account increased from 9.7 billion (12.2 billion dollars) to 14.4 billion euros (18.1 billion dollars), the EU's statistics office said.

The balance of the income account deteriorated to 3.7 billion euros (4.7 billion dollars) in deficit from a surplus of 16.7 billion (21 billion dollars), while the balance of the current transfer account remained nearly stable at a deficit of 12.8 billion euros (16.1 billion dollars).

In the fourth quarter last year, the 25-nation EU's external current account recorded a 20.3-billion-euro (25.6 billion dollars) surplus with the United States, a 2.8-billion-euro (3.5 billion dollars) surplus with Canada and a 1.4-billion-euro (1.8 billion dollars) surplus with Switzerland.

But it posted a deficit of 5 billion euros (6.3 billion dollars) with Japan and a deficit of 51.4 billion euros (64.8 billion dollars) with remaining partners as a whole.

Preliminary figures showed that the EU's current account deficit for the whole of 2005 soared to 94.2 billion euros (118.7 billion dollars) from 12.8 billion euros (16.1 billion dollars) in the previous year.

The surge was mainly due to a sharp rise in the goods deficit and a deterioration in the income account, the Eurostat said.

Source: Xinhua