Greece's current account surplus dropped in July compared to the same month last year as primary and secondary income accounts deteriorated, offseting tourism revenues, data from the Bank of Greece showed on Wednesday.

The central bank data showed the current account surplus was 828 million euros ($884.97 million) in July, down from a surplus of 963 million euros in July 2022.

The deficit of the primary income account doubled year-on-year due to higher interest, dividend and profit payments, the data showed.

The surplus in the balance of goods and services more than doubled, helped by tourism revenues which came in at 4.15 billion euros, a 15% rise compared to July last year, when the country had just recovered from COVID-19 restrictions.

Greece saw its trade deficit rising by 63% year-on-year in 2022, to 20 billion euros or 9.7% of its economic output, on the back of much costlier energy imports.

Rising exports, helped by tourism, should help it lower the deficit this year, according to a financial stability plan that Greece submitted to the European Union in April.

($1 = 0.9356 euros) (Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)