HNB analysts say that the negative trends on the balance-of-payments account from the first quarter of last year were replaced by positive developments after the first quarter.
The current account deficit of 1.276 billion euros is by 27.4 percent lower in relation to the year before.
Expressed in percentages of GDP, the current account deficit saw an annual decrease of 2.3 percent, going down from 6.9 percent in 2003 to 4.6 percent of GDP in 2004, reads the latest HNB quarterly bulletin.
With regard to the commodities account, HNB analysts say that the decrease of the negative balance of the commodities account, which marked the third quarter, continued into the fourth quarter.
The foreign trade deficit in the fourth quarter reached 1.7 billion euros, which is 8.2 percent less than in the same period of 2003. An even more visible drop in the foreign trade deficit of 13.6 percent was registered in the third quarter.
Despite these developments, the average annual growth of the foreign trade deficit in the first half of 2004 was five percent.
The relatively favourable trade trends in the second half of last year are the result of significantly lower commodity import rates, with the positive trend of growing exports having continued.
The export of commodities amounted to 6.5 billion euros, while imports totalled 13.3 billion euros, so the foreign trade deficit reached 6.8 billion euros.
Preliminary data for the services account show that last year's surplus in services trade was almost the same as in 2003.
Revenue from tourism in the fourth quarter reached 600 million euros, which is a mild annual increase.
Annual revenue from tourism services reached 5.7 billion euros, almost the same as in 2003.
The share of tourism revenue in GDP saw a slight drop from 22.3 percent in 2003 to 20.6 percent in 2004.