Press Release - Euro area monthly balance of payments (July 2016)
In July 2016 the current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of €21.0 billion.[1]
In the financial account, combined direct and portfolio investment recorded net acquisitions of assets of €58 billion and net disposals of liabilities of €14 billion.
Current account
The current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of €21.0 billion in July 2016 (see Table 1). This reflected surpluses for goods (€26.4 billion), services (€4.9 billion) and primary income (€3.4 billion), which were partly offset by a deficit in secondary income (€13.7 billion).
The 12-month cumulated current account for the period ending in July 2016 recorded a surplus of €343.2 billion (3.2% of euro area GDP), compared with one of €309.7 billion (3.0% of euro area GDP) for the 12 months to July 2015 (see Table 1 and Chart 1). This development was mostly due to an increase in the surpluses for both goods(from €318.8 billion to €363.0 billion) and services (from €63.6 billion to €64.9 billion), as well as a decrease in the deficit for secondary income (from €134.5 billion to €126.0 billion). These were partly offset by decreases in the surplus for primary income (from €61.9 billion to €41.3 billion).
Financial account
In July 2016 combined direct and portfolio investment recorded net acquisitions of assets of €58 billion and net disposals of liabilities of €14 billion (see Table 2).
Euro area residents recorded net acquisitions of €16 billion in direct investmentassets, driven by net acquisitions of equity (€10 billion) and debt instruments (€6 billion). Direct investment liabilities decreased by €4 billion as a result of net disposals of debt instruments (€6 billion), which was partly offset by net acquisitions of equity(€3 billion) by non-euro area residents.
As regards portfolio investment assets, euro area residents made net acquisitions of foreign securities amounting to €42 billion, reflected in net purchases of long-term debt securities (€50 billion) and equity (€11 billion) that were partly offset by net disposals of short-term debt securities (€19 billion). Portfolio investment liabilities recorded net disposals by non-euro area residents of €11 billion, which was reflected in net sales/amortisations by non-euro area residents of both short-term (€28 billion)and long-term (€14 billion) debt securities issued by euro area residents. This was partly offset by non-euro area residents’ net acquisitions of euro area equity (€31 billion).
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