Euro area balance of payments (November 2007)

The working day and seasonally adjusted current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of EUR 0.7 billion in November 2007, since surpluses in goods, services and income offset a deficit in current transfers. Combined direct and portfolio investment recorded net inflows of EUR 21 billion, reflecting net inflows in both portfolio and direct investment. Financial derivatives recorded net outflows of EUR 33 billion.

The working day and seasonally adjusted current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of EUR 0.7 billion in November 2007 (corresponding to a surplus of EUR 1.0 billion in non-seasonally adjusted terms). This reflected surpluses in goods (EUR 4.8 billion), services (EUR 3.2 billion) and income (EUR 0.2 billion), which were offset almost in full by a deficit in current transfers (EUR 7.5 billion).

The 12-month cumulated working day-adjusted current account up to November 2007 recorded a surplus of EUR 25.6 billion (about 0.3% of euro area GDP), compared with a deficit of EUR 21.3 billion a year earlier. This shift mainly resulted from increases in the surpluses in goods (from EUR 19.3 billion to EUR 65.4 billion) and services (from EUR 33.9 billion to EUR 43.5 billion), which were partly compensated for by a shift in the income account from a surplus (EUR 6.2 billion) to a deficit (EUR 3.4 billion).

In the financial account, combined direct and portfolio investment recorded net inflows of EUR 21 billion in November 2007, reflecting net inflows both in direct investment (EUR 11 billion) and in portfolio investment (EUR 10 billion).

The net inflows in direct investment resulted from net inflows in other capital, mostly inter-company loans (EUR 14 billion).

The portfolio investment account recorded net inflows in debt instruments (EUR 25 billion), which were only partly offset by net outflows in equity (EUR 15 billion). The net inflows in debt instruments predominantly comprised net purchases of euro area bonds and notes by residents outside the euro area (EUR 54 billion).

Financial derivatives recorded net outflows of EUR 33 billion.

The other investment account was balanced, reflecting that net inflows in MFIs were counterbalanced by net outflows in other sectors.

Reserve assets increased by EUR 0.2 billion (excluding valuation effects). At the end of November 2007 the stock of the Eurosystem’s reserve assets stood at EUR 339 billion.

In the 12-month period to November 2007, combined direct and portfolio investment showed cumulated net inflows of EUR 145 billion, compared with net inflows of EUR 120 billion a year earlier. This increase reflected lower net outflows in direct investment (from EUR 130 billion to EUR 112 billion) and higher net inflows in portfolio investment (from EUR 251 billion to EUR 257 billion)

In addition to the balance of payments for November 2007, this press release incorporates revisions for October 2007. Those revisions have not significantly affected the previously published data and mainly concerned the data on financial derivatives.

A complete set of updated euro area balance of payments and international investment position statistics is available on the ECB’s website in the “Statistics” section under the headings “Data services”/“Latest monetary, financial markets and balance of payments statistics”. These data, as well as the historical euro area balance of payments time series, can be downloaded from the ECB’s Statistical Data Warehouse (SDW). Results up to November 2007 will also be published in the February 2008 issues of the ECB’s Monthly Bulletin and Statistics Pocket Book. A detailed methodological note is available on the ECB’s website. The next press release on the euro area monthly balance of payments will be published on 21 February 2008.

Annexes

Table 1: Current account of the euro area – working day and seasonally adjusted data.

Table 2: Monthly balance of payments of the euro area – non-seasonally adjusted data.