Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Hungary’s third-quarter current- account surplus shrank from the previous three months and was smaller than analysts projected as the surplus on the trade of goods and services declined.

The current-account showed a surplus of 381 million euros ($493 million), compared with a revised 530 million euros in the April-June period and 260 million euros a year earlier, the Magyar Nemzeti Bank said today. That compares with an estimate for a 650 million-euro surplus in a Bloomberg survey of 8 economists. The seasonally adjusted current-account surplus was 340 million euros, the central bank said.

Hungary’s current-account balance has been improving as the economy recovers from a contraction of 6.7 percent in 2009, its worst in 18 years, which sapped consumer demand and reduced industrial output. The government expects a current-account surplus of above 2 percent of gross domestic product in 2012, Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy said on Sept. 30.

Hungary’s net external financing capacity, or the combined surplus of the current and capital accounts, was an adjusted 3.5 percent of GDP in the third quarter.

The country had a surplus of 1.8 billion euros in the trade of goods and services, down from 2.2 billion billion euros in the previous quarter, while direct investment income showed a deficit of 1.2 billion euros. Current transfers from the EU had a surplus of 365 million euros.

--Editors: Douglas Lytle, Chris Peterson

To contact the reporter on this story: Edith Balazs in Budapest at ebalazs1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James M. Gomez at jagomez@bloomberg.net