Greece's current accounts deficit widened by 72 percent in the January-November period of 2006 to 20. 821 billion euros (27.359 billion U.S. dollars), as against the same period of the previous year, the Bank of Greece said on Tuesday.

The central bank attributed the negative development in a report mainly to a widening of the trade deficit.

The country's trade deficit totaled 32.06 billion euros (42.13 billion dollars) in the first 11 months of last year, up 30 percent from 2005, reflecting higher spending on the import of vessels and higher net payments for fuel imports.

Excluding fuel and vessels, the value of exports rose 11.7 percent to 10.5 billion euros (13.8 billion dollars), while the value of imports rose 12.2 percent to 31.6 billion euros (41.5 billion dollars).

The services sector's surplus rose slightly in the January- November period while the incomes' deficit rose by 1.384 billion euros (1.819 billion dollars), mainly due to higher net payments on interest, dividends and profits.

The current transfer surplus fell slightly while the capital transfers surplus rose to 2.587 billion euros (3.399 billion dollars), due to higher inflow of community funds.

Foreign direct investment inflows totaled 4.01 billion euros (5. 27 billion dollars) with a net inflow of 1.226 billion euros (1. 611 billion dollars) in the first 11 months of 2006.

Source: Xinhua