Euro area monthly balance of payments: December 2022

17 February 2023

• Current account recorded €16 billion surplus in December 2022, up from €13 billion in previous month
• Current account deficit amounted to €106 billion (0.8% of euro area GDP) in 2022, compared with a surplus of €282 billion (2.3%) in 2021
• In financial account, euro area residents’ net sales of non-euro area portfolio investment securities totalled €244 billion and non-residents’ net sales of euro area portfolio investment securities totalled €2 billion in 2022

Chart 1

Euro area current account balance

(EUR billions; working day and seasonally adjusted data)

The current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of €16 billion in December 2022, an increase of €3 billion from the previous month (Chart 1 and Table 1). Surpluses were recorded for services (€14 billion), goods (€8 billion) and primary income (€7 billion). These were partly offset by a deficit for secondary income (€13 billion).

Table 1

Current account of the euro area

(EUR billions unless otherwise indicated; transactions; working day and seasonally adjusted data)

In 2022, the current account recorded a deficit of €106 billion (0.8% of euro area GDP), compared with a surplus of €282 billion (2.3% of euro area GDP) in 2021. This change in the current account balance was mainly driven by a switch from a surplus (€287 billion) to a deficit (€60 billion) for goods, and, to a lesser extent, by a reduction in the surplus for primary income (down from €63 billion to €7 billion) and a slightly larger deficit for secondary income (up from €160 billion to €166 billion). These developments were partly offset by a larger surplus for services (up from €92 billion to €114 billion).

Chart 2

Selected items of the euro area financial account

(EUR billions; 12-month cumulated data)

In direct investment, euro area residents made net disinvestments of €32 billion in non-euro area assets in 2022, following net investments of €162 billion in 2021 (Chart 2 and Table 2). Non-residents disinvested €174 billion in net terms from euro area assets in 2022, following net disinvestments of €133 billion in 2021.

In portfolio investment, euro area residents’ net sales of non-euro area equity amounted to €208 billion in 2022, following net purchases of €370 billion in 2021. Over the same period, net sales of non-euro area debt securities by euro area residents amounted to €36 billion, following net purchases of € 421 billion in 2021. Non-residents’ net purchases of euro area equity decreased to €11 billion in 2022, down from €667 billion in 2021. Over the same period, non-residents made net sales of euro area debt securities amounting to €13 billion, decreasing from €194 billion in 2021.

Table 2

Financial account of the euro area

(EUR billions unless otherwise indicated; transactions; non-working day and non-seasonally adjusted data)

In other investment, euro area residents recorded net acquisitions of non-euro area assets amounting to €121 billion in 2022 (following net acquisitions of €246 billion in 2021), while their net incurrence of liabilities decreased to €86 billion (down from €743 billion in 2021).

Chart 3

Monetary presentation of the balance of payments

(EUR billions; 12-month cumulated data)

The monetary presentation of the balance of payments (Chart 3) shows that the net external assets (enhanced) of euro area MFIs decreased by €84 billion in 2022. This decrease was driven by euro area non-MFIs’ net outflows in other investment, direct investment and other flows. These developments were partly offset by euro area non-MFIs’ net inflows in portfolio investment equity and debt and, to a lesser extent, by the current and capital accounts surplus.

In December 2022 the Eurosystem’s stock of reserve assets decreased to €1114.2 billion, down from €1115.1 billion in the previous month (Table 3). This slight decrease was due to negative exchange rate changes (€7.8 billion), which were partly offset by net acquisitions of assets (€4.6 billion) and by positive price changes (€2.6 billion).

Table 3

Reserve assets of the euro area

(EUR billions; amounts outstanding at the end of the period, flows during the period; non-working day and non-seasonally adjusted data)

Data revisions

This press release incorporates revisions to the data for October and November 2022. These revisions did not significantly alter the figures previously published.

Next releases:

• Monthly balance of payments: 22 March 2023 (reference data up to January 2023)
• Quarterly balance of payments and international investment position: 5 April 2023 (reference data up to the fourth quarter of 2022)

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

Notes

• Current account data are always seasonally and working day-adjusted, unless otherwise indicated, whereas capital and financial account data are neither seasonally nor working day-adjusted.
• Hyperlinks in this press release lead to data that may change with subsequent releases as a result of revisions.