(Adds bank's quote, data for tourism and imports)

ATHENS, March 22 (Reuters) - Greece's current account turned to surplus in January compared to the same month last year on strong tourism and an improvement in secondary income account, the Bank of Greece said on Friday.

Central bank data showed the current account surplus was 1.7 billion euros ($1.84 billion) in January, compared with a deficit of 162 million euros in January 2023.

"The surplus of the secondary income account rose considerably compared with January 2023, due to higher net receipts in the other sectors of the economy," the bank said.

Tourism receipts rose by 27% to 278 million euros as foreign arrivals increased by 16% year-on-year. Imports dropped by 3.4% and exports by 10.5% year-on-year, the data showed. ($1 = 0.9244 euros) (Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas Editing by Tomasz Janowski)