Monthly developments in January 2002

Turning to seasonally adjusted data, exports and imports of goods remained virtually unchanged in January 2002 compared with December 2001, while exports and imports of services continued to increase over the same period, returning to levels seen before September. The decline in the deficit of current transfers was due to an increase in credits and a decrease in debits. In portfolio investment, the liabilities side of debt instruments showed net outflows in January 2002 (EUR 21.2 billion) which were similar to those in December 2001 (EUR 19.5 billion) owing to the fact that non-residents reduced holdings of both euro area bonds and notes (EUR 7.8 billion) and money market instruments (EUR 13.4 billion) in January 2002. Net inflows recorded in liabilities of portfolio equities (EUR 8.9 billion) were somewhat lower than in previous months. Investment in foreign securities by residents amounted to EUR 29.0 billion, which was evenly split between equity and debt securities. Errors and omissions amounted to EUR 36.5 billion in January 2002.

The euro area current account recorded a deficit of EUR 1.5 billion in January 2002, compared with a deficit of EUR 11.1 billion in January 2001. This decrease in the current account deficit resulted from the goods balance turning from a deficit of EUR 3.9 billion in January 2001 into a surplus of EUR billion 2.1 in January 2002, combined with an increase in the surplus of current transfers from EUR 2.7 billion in January 2001 to EUR 5.8 billion in January 2002. The services deficit increased slightly (by EUR 0.3 billion), while the income deficit decreased slightly (by EUR 0.8 billion). The change in the goods balance was due to imports of goods decreasing at a stronger rate than exports of goods (by 11.4% and 4.4% respectively). In the financial account, combined net direct and portfolio investment outflows in January 2002 amounted to EUR 36.9 billion. This was mainly related to net outflows of EUR 41.3 billion in portfolio investment. Net direct investment recorded inflows of EUR 4.3 billion. Elsewhere in the financial account in January 2002 net inflows in financial derivatives amounted to EUR 0.6 billion, net inflows in other investment amounted to EUR 4.0 billion and reserve assets (excluding valuation effects) increased by EUR 5.3 billion.

Note on balance of payments statistics produced by the Eurosystem

Euro-indicators News Releases The results up to January 2002 will also be published in the April 2002 issue of the

The methodology used was developed in close co-operation with the European Commission (Eurostat), which publishes the Balance of Payments for the European Union (   ). The ECB compiles balance of payments statistics on the basis of the data on extra-euro area transactions reported by euro area Member States.

ECB Monthly Bulletin

Annexes

. A detailed methodological note is available on the ECB's website.

Table 1 Table 2

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: Balance of payments of the euro area for 2001 and monthly developments for January 2002. : Euro area current account -seasonally adjusted data. Reproduction is permitted provided that the source is acknowledged