Press Release - Euro area monthly balance of payments (February 2017) 21 April 2017
In February 2017 the current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of €37.9 billion.[1] - In the financial account, combined direct and portfolio investment recorded net acquisitions of assets of €149 billion and net incurrences of liabilities of €76 billion.
Current account
The current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of €37.9 billion in February 2017 (see Table 1). This reflected surpluses for goods (€29.5 billion), services (€9.5 billion) and primary income (€4.2 billion), which were partly offset by a deficit for secondary income (€5.4 billion).
The 12-month cumulated current account for the period ending in February 2017 recorded a surplus of €360.2 billion (3.4% of euro area GDP), compared with one of €341.2 billion (3.2% of euro area GDP) for the 12 months to February 2016 (see Table 1 and Chart 1). This was due to increases in the surpluses for goods (from €344.0 billion to €368.6 billion) and primary income (from €53.7 billion to €79.5 billion). These were partly offset by a decrease in the surplus of services (from €70.7 billion to €49.5 billion) and an increase in the deficit for secondary income (from €127.1 billion to €137.4 billion).
Financial account
In February 2017 combined direct and portfolio investment recorded net acquisitions of assets of €149 billion and net incurrences of liabilities of €76 billion (see Table 2).
Euro area residents recorded net acquisitions of €95 billion of direct investment assets as a result of net acquisitions of both equity (€19 billion) and debt instruments (€76 billion). Direct investment liabilities also increased by €95 billion as a result of net acquisitions of euro area equity (€4 billion) and debt instruments (€91 billion) by non-euro area residents.
As regards portfolio investment assets, euro area residents made net acquisitions of foreign securities amounting to €54 billion. This resulted from net purchases of long-term debt securities (€34 billion), short-term debt securities (€11 billion) and equity (€10 billion). Portfolio investment liabilities recorded net reductions of €19 billion as a result of net sales/amortisations of euro area long-term debt securities (€26 billion) and equity (€4 billion) by non-euro area residents. These net sales/amortisations were partly offset by net acquisitions of euro area short-term debt securities (€10 billion) by noneuro area residents.
The euro area net financial derivatives account (assets minus liabilities) recorded positive net flows of €5 billion.
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