The euro zone's current account surplus widened in March on a bigger primary income, which includes items such as profits, remittances and income on investments abroad, data from the European Central Bank showed on Tuesday.

Based on seasonally- and calendar-adjusted figures, the surplus rose to 35.77 billion euros ($38.86 billion) in March from 28.89 billion euros in February, while unadjusted figures showed a jump to 44.53 billion euros from 31.12 billion.

In the 12 months to March, the surplus surged to 2.1% of the 20-nation currency bloc's GDP from a deficit of 0.6% in the preceding 12 months. ($1 = 0.9206 euros) (Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; editing by Mark Heinrich)