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PRESS RELEASE

Euro area monthly balance of payments (September 2017)

17 November 2017
  • In September 2017 the current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of €37.8 billion.[1]
  • In the financial account, combined direct and portfolio investment recorded net acquisitions of assets of €52 billion and net disposals of liabilities of €6 billion.
https://darwin.escb.eu/livelink/livelink/209640560/Chart.gif?func=doc.Fetch&nodeid=209640560

Current account

The current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of €37.8 billion in September 2017 (see Table 1). This reflected surpluses for goods (€35.2 billion), primary income (€9.7 billion) and services (€7.3 billion), which were partly offset by a deficit for secondary income (€14.3 billion).

The 12-month cumulated current account for the period ending in September 2017 recorded a surplus of €346.4 billion (3.2% of euro area GDP), compared with one of €359.3 billion (3.4% of euro area GDP) for the 12 months to September 2016 (see Table 1 and Chart 1). This development was due to a decrease in the surplus for goods (from €377.0 billion to €342.0 billion) and an increase in the deficit for secondary income (from €135.9 billion to €151.1 billion). These were partly offset by increases in the surpluses for primary income (from €69.2 billion to €93.4 billion) and services (from €49.0 billion to €62.0 billion).

Financial account

In September 2017 combined direct and portfolio investment recorded net acquisitions of assets (€52 billion) and net disposals of liabilities (€6 billion) (see Table 2).

Euro area residents recorded a net increase of €12 billion of direct investment assets as a result of net investments in equity (€20 billion), which were partly offset by net disinvestments in debt instruments (€9 billion). Direct investment liabilities increased by €2 billion as a result of net acquisitions of euro area equity (€4 billion) by non-euro area residents. This was partly offset by net disposals of euro area debt instruments by non-euro area residents (€2 billion).

With regard to portfolio investment assets, euro area residents made net purchases of foreign securities amounting to €41 billion. This resulted from net acquisitions of both short-term and long-term debt securities (€21 billion and €15 billion, respectively) and equity (€5 billion). Portfolio investment liabilities decreased by €8 billion as a result of non-euro area residents’ net disposals of euro area long-term debt securities (€42 billion), which were partly offset by net acquisitions of euro area equity (€20 billion) and short-term debt securities (€14 billion).

The euro area net financial derivatives account (assets minus liabilities) recorded negative net flows of €8 billion.

Other investment recorded decreases in both assets and liabilities of €30 billion and €54 billion, respectively. The decrease in assets was explained by MFIs (excluding the Eurosystem) (€44 billion) and, to a lesser extent, by general government (€2 billion), which were partly offset by increases in assets of other sectors (€12 billion) and the Eurosystem (€2 billion). The decrease in liabilities was attributable to MFIs (excluding the Eurosystem) (€71 billion) and other sectors (€19 billion). These were partly offset by incurrences of liabilities by the Eurosystem (€32 billion) and the general government sectors (€4 billion).

In the 12 months to September 2017 combined direct and portfolio investment recorded increases of €732 billion in assets and €317 billion in liabilities, compared with increases of €1,087 billion and €416 billion respectively in the 12 months to September 2016. This resulted primarily from a decrease in the direct investment activities of both euro area residents abroad and non-residents in the euro area, with the net acquisition of equity assets decreasing from €603 billion to €128 billion and a shift in equity liabilities, from net investments of non-euro area residents of €409 billion to net disinvestments of €46 billion. The changes in direct investment were partly offset by developments in portfolio investment, in particular those related to transactions in equity. On the asset side, there was a shift from net sales of foreign equity by euro area residents of €5 billion to net purchases of €162 billion. On the liabilities side, the non-euro area residents increased the net purchases of euro area equities from €171 billion to €320 billion.

According to the monetary presentation of the balance of payments, the net external assets of euro area monetary financial institutions (MFIs) decreased by €67 billion in the 12 months to September 2017, compared with a decrease of €223 billion in the 12 months to September 2016. This still reflects primarily a 12-month cumulated current and capital account surplus (€319.6 billion), whose counterpart entries are observed in net financial transactions by non-MFIs.

In September 2017 the Eurosystem’s stock of reserve assets increased to €674.8 billion from €673.7 billion in the previous month (see Table 3). This increase (€1.1 billion) was explained mainly by net acquisitions of assets (€6.4 billion), which were partly offset by negative price changes (€5.6 billion), particularly of monetary gold.

Data revisions

This press release incorporates revisions to the data for July and August 2017. These revisions have not significantly altered the figures previously published.

Additional information

Time-series data: the ECB’s Statistical Data Warehouse (SDW)

Methodological information Monetary presentation of the balance of payments Next press releases:
  • monthly balance of payments: 20 December 2017 (reference data up to October 2017)
  • quarterly balance of payments and international investment position: 11 January 2017 (reference data up to the third quarter of 2017).

Annexes

For media queries, please contact Philippe Rispal, tel.: +49 69 1344 5482.

  1. [1] References to the current account are always to data that are seasonally and working day-adjusted, unless otherwise indicated, whereas references to the capital and financial accounts are to data that are neither seasonally nor working day-adjusted.

CONTATTI

Banca centrale europea

Direzione Generale Comunicazione

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