25/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - The current account deficit of the 12 eurozone countries increased sharply to EUR 4.1 billion in July 2001 from EUR 2.5 billion in July 2000, reveal the statistics published by the European Central Bank on Monday. The ECB notes that this was only partly offset by the increase in the goods surplus (from EUR 6.3 billion to EUR 8.5 billion). The cumulated current account deficit fell by EUR 7.9 billion, to EUR 15.3 billion in the first seven months of 2001 from EUR 23.2 billion for the same period last year. This largely reflects the almost doubling of the goods surplus from EUR 18.2 billion to EUR 34.7 billion in the first seven months of the year. The ECB notes that exports rose more sharply than imports (+12.9% vs +10.1%).