Switzerland's current account surplus widened to 15 billion Swiss francs ($16.66 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2023, the Swiss National Bank said on Friday.

The figure represented an increase of 2 billion francs over the same quarter of 2022 and was attributable to a higher trade in goods, the central bank said in a statement.

For 2023 as a whole, Switzerland ran a current account surplus of 61 billion francs, the SNB said, in line with the country's long term average, but down from the 74 billion surplus in 2022. (Reporting by John Revill Editing by Matthias Williams)