30/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - According to the latest estimates published by Eurostat, the EU15 external current account recorded a surplus of 8.4 billion euro in the first quarter of 2003, as compared with a surplus of 2.5 billion euro in the first quarter of 2002 and a surplus of 15.7 billion euro in the fourth quarter of 2002. The increase in the EU15 current account surplus recorded in the first quarter of 2003 compared to the first quarter 2002 resulted from a higher decrease in current account debit transactions (-2.2%) than in current account credit transactions (-0.6%). In the first quarter of 2003, higher surpluses were recorded in services (+4.6 bn euro, compared to 0.0 bn in the first quarter of 2002) and income (+12.1 bn euro, compared to +5.7 bn one year ago) balances, while the goods balance surplus decreased to +0.4 bn euro (+5.4 bn in the first quarter of 2002) and the current transfers deficit remained stable at -8.7 bn euro (-8.6 bn one year ago).