Euro area balance of payments in March 2012

In March 2012 the seasonally adjusted current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of €9.1 billion. In the financial account, combined direct and portfolio investment recorded net outflows of €54 billion (non-seasonally adjusted).

Current account

The seasonally adjusted current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of €9.1 billion in March 2012 (see Table 1). This reflected surpluses for goods (€8.6 billion), services (€6.2 billion) and income (€3.0 billion), which were partially offset by a deficit for current transfers (€8.8 billion).

Preliminary results based on monthly data for the first quarter of 2012 show a surplus of EUR 11.6 billion for the seasonally adjusted current account.

The 12-month cumulated seasonally adjusted current account recorded a surplus of €9.6 billion in March 2012 (around 0.1% of euro area GDP – see Table 1 and Chart 1), compared with a deficit of €16.7 billion a year earlier (around 0.2% of euro area GDP). This shift resulted from increases in the surpluses for goods (from €2.5 billion to €15.4 billion), services (from €51.1 billion to €62.5 billion) and income (from €31.5 billion to €32.4 billion), and from a decrease in the deficit for current transfers (from €101.7 billion to €100.6 billion).

Financial account

In the financial account (see Table 2), combined direct and portfolio investment recorded net outflows of €54 billion in March 2012, as a result of net outflows both for portfolio investment (€35 billion) and for direct investment (€18 billion).

The net outflows for direct investment resulted mainly from net outflows for other capital (mostly inter-company loans) (€20 billion).

Portfolio investment recorded net outflows for debt instruments (€49 billion), which were partly offset by net inflows for equity (€13 billion).

The net outflows for debt instruments resulted mainly from net purchases, by euro area residents, of both foreign bonds and notes (€26 billion) and foreign money market instruments (€25 billion).

The financial derivatives account recorded net outflows of €5 billion.

Other investment recorded net inflows of €39 billion, reflecting net inflows for MFIs excluding the Eurosystem (€85 billion) and general government (€3 billion), which were partly offset by net outflows for the Eurosystem (€34 billion) and other sectors (€15 billion).

The Eurosystem’s stock of reserve assets decreased by €25 billion in March 2012 (from €696 billion to €671 billion), mainly on account of a decrease in the market price of gold (the net transactions contributed €1 billion to the overall decrease in reserve assets).

In the 12-month period to March 2012, combined direct and portfolio investment recorded cumulated net outflows of €24 billion, compared with net inflows of €169 billion in the preceding 12-month period. This shift was largely due to lower net inflows for portfolio investment (down from €281 billion to €113 billion), which mainly reflected lower net purchases of euro area securities, in particular equities, by non-residents investors (down from €241 billion to €49 billion).

Data revisions

This press release incorporates revisions to the data for February 2012. These revisions have not significantly changed the previously published data.

Additional information on the euro area balance of payments and international investment position

In this press release, the seasonally adjusted current account refers to working day and seasonally adjusted data. Data for the financial account are not working day or seasonally adjusted.

In line with the agreed allocation of responsibilities, the European Central Bank compiles and disseminates monthly and quarterly balance of payments statistics for the euro area, whereas the European Commission (Eurostat; see news releases for “Euro-indicators”) focuses on quarterly and annual aggregates for the European Union. These data comply with international standards, particularly those set out in the IMF’s Balance of Payments Manual (fifth edition). The aggregates for the euro area and the European Union are compiled consistently on the basis of transactions and positions vis-à-vis residents of countries outside the euro area and the European Union respectively.

A complete set of updated euro area balance of payments statistics (including a quarterly geographical breakdown for the main counterparts) and international investment position statistics is available in the “Statistics” section of the ECB’s website under the headings “Data services”/“Latest monetary, financial markets and balance of payments statistics”. These data, as well as historical euro area balance of payments time series, can be downloaded from the ECB’s Statistical Data Warehouse (SDW). Data up to March 2012 will also be published in the June 2012 issues of the ECB’s Monthly Bulletin and Statistics Pocket Book. Detailed methodological notes are available on the ECB’s website. The next press release on the euro area monthly balance of payments will be published on 21 June 2012.

Annexes

Table 1: Current account of the euro area

Table 2: Monthly balance of payments of the euro area