Euro area monthly balance of payments: September 2025

19 November 2025

• Current account recorded €23 billion surplus in September 2025, up from €22 billion in previous month
• Current account surplus amounted to €306 billion (2.0% of euro area GDP) in the 12 months to September 2025, down from €414 billion (2.7%) one year earlier
• In financial account, euro area residents’ net acquisitions of non-euro area portfolio investment securities totalled €868 billion and non-residents’ net acquisitions of euro area portfolio investment securities totalled €729 billion in the 12 months to September 2025

Chart 1

Euro area current account balance

(EUR billions unless otherwise indicated; working day and seasonally adjusted data)

The current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of €23 billion in September 2025, an increase of €1 billion from the previous month (Chart 1 and Table 1). Surpluses were recorded for goods (€30 billion) and services (€12 billion). These were partly offset by deficits for secondary income (€17 billion) and primary income (€3 billion).

Table 1

Current account of the euro area

(EUR billions unless otherwise indicated; transactions; working day and seasonally adjusted data)

In the 12 months to September 2025, the current account recorded a surplus of €306 billion (2.0% of euro area GDP), compared with a surplus of €414 billion (2.7% of euro area GDP) one year earlier. This decrease was mainly driven by a switch from a surplus (€51 billion) to a deficit (€21 billion) for primary income, but also by a larger deficit for secondary income (up from €164 billion to €189 billion) and a reduction in the surplus for services (down from €168 billion to €155 billion). These developments were partly offset by a slightly larger surplus for goods (up from €360 billion to €362 billion).

Chart 2

Selected items of the euro area financial account

(EUR billions; 12-month cumulated data)

In direct investment, euro area residents made net investments of €161 billion in non-euro area assets in the 12 months to September 2025, following net disinvestments of €234 billion one year earlier (Chart 2 and Table 2). Non-residents invested €76 billion in net terms in euro area assets in the 12 months to September 2025, following net disinvestments of €470 billion one year earlier.

In portfolio investment, euro area residents’ net purchases of non-euro area equity increased to €213 billion in the 12 months to September 2025, up from €157 billion one year earlier. Over the same period, net purchases of non-euro area debt securities by euro-area residents increased to €655 billion, up from €464 billion one year earlier. Non-residents’ net purchases of euro area equity increased to €410 billion in the 12 months to September 2025, up from €364 billion one year earlier. Over the same period, non-residents made net purchases of euro area debt securities amounting to €320 billion, declining from €400 billion one year earlier.

Table 2

Financial account of the euro area

(EUR billions unless otherwise indicated; transactions; non-working day and non-seasonally adjusted data)

In other investment, euro area residents recorded net acquisitions of non-euro area assets amounting to €377 billion in the 12 months to September 2025 (down from €434 billion one year earlier), while their net incurrence of liabilities was €298 billion (up from €24 billion one year earlier).

Chart 3

Monetary presentation of the balance of payments

(EUR billions; 12-month cumulated data)

The monetary presentation of the balance of payments (Chart 3) shows that the net external assets (enhanced) of euro area MFIs increased by €244 billion in the 12 months to September 2025. This increase was driven by the current and capital accounts surplus and euro area non-MFIs’ net inflows in other investment and portfolio investment equity. These developments were partly offset by euro area non-MFIs’ net outflows in other flows, portfolio investment debt and direct investment.

In September 2025 the Eurosystem’s stock of reserve assets increased to €1,622.2 billion up from €1,507.8 billion in the previous month (Table 3). This increase was largely driven by positive price changes (€112.7 billion), due to an increase in the price of gold, and, to a lesser extent, by net acquisitions of assets (€4.6 billion). These were partly offset by negative exchange rate changes (€2.9 billion).

Table 3

Reserve assets of the euro area

(EUR billions; amounts outstanding at the end of the period, flows during the period; non-working day and non-seasonally adjusted data)

Data revisions

This press release incorporates revisions to the data for July 2025 and August 2025. These revisions modified the figures previously published in August 2025 for the current account balance mainly due to revisions in goods imports.

Next releases:

• Monthly balance of payments: 19 December 2025 (reference data of November 2025)
• Quarterly balance of payments: 13 January 2026 (reference data up to the third quarter of 2025)

For media queries, please contact Benoît Deeg, tel.: +49 172 1683704.

Notes

• Current account data are always seasonally and working day-adjusted, unless otherwise indicated, whereas capital and financial account data are neither seasonally nor working day-adjusted.
• Hyperlinks in this press release lead to data that may change with subsequent releases as a result of revisions.