Eurozone current account surplus widened

The current account of the 17-nation economy widened more than preliminary was estimated, due to an increase in trade, the European Central Bank said Friday. The current account surplus, which is a broad measure of an economy's international transactions, surged to 16.3 billion in February, up from 13.8 billion in the previous month. The report also showed that the trade surplus jumped to 12.2 billion in February, compared with 12 billion in the preceding month. It is a good sign for the Eurozone's struggling economy, suggesting that the region is exporting more goods than it is importing, which in likely to provide a boost to the economic output.

"We expect a gradual recovery in the euro area economic activity for the second half of this year, but this scenario is subject to downside risks," Draghi said at a plenary debate at the parliament in Strasbourg.

"The stability of the euro against the dollar shows that people trust what the ECB has done so far to resolve the crisis," James Kwok, the London-based head of currencies at Amundi Asset Management, which oversees $947 billion, said in a phone interview. "People trust what Draghi is doing. As long as that's the case, then the euro will remain supported."