Greek current account surplus widens in August

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's current account surplus widened in August compared to the same month last year, boosted by higher tourism receipts, according to balance of payments figures released by the central bank on Tuesday.

The surplus stood at 1.83 billion euros (1.45 billion pounds) versus a surplus of 1.21 billion euros in August last year.

Greece posted a current account surplus of 1.24 billion euros last year, or about 0.7 percent of gross domestic product. It is expected to post a surplus again this year due to shrinking imports and higher revenues from tourism, the country's biggest foreign-currency earner.

Tourism revenues rose to 3.18 billion euros in August from 2.89 billion euros in the same month in 2013.