Statistical Press Release – International Investment Position - December 2018
Today, Banco de Portugal publishes statistics, in Table A.18 of the Statistical Bulletin and in BPstat, on the international investment position (IIP) for December 2018.
At the end of December 2018, Portugal’s IIP stood at -€203.2 billion, reflecting a positive change of around €1 billion compared with the end of 2017 (Chart 1).
The change in the IIP was largely due to the positive impact of transactions (€1.4 billion) and other adjustments (€1.6 billion) combined, partly offset by exchange rate changes (-€1.3 billion) and price changes (-€0.9 billion).
For greater detail of net transactions of Portuguese net foreign assets see the Press Release on the Balance of payments.
In the case of exchange rate changes, a depreciation of the kwanza resulted in a reduction in the value in euro of Angolan assets held by residents. In regard to price changes, the negative impact on the IIP mainly reflected the sale of credits of non-financial corporations to non-resident entities for an amount below the one agreed.
In the period under review, the IIP as a percentage of GDP1 recorded a positive change from -104.9% at the end of 2017 to -101.3% at the end of December 2018.
The net external debt of Portugal, which is the result of the IIP mostly excluding capital instruments, gold bullion and financial derivatives, reached €179.5 billion in December 2018. Net external debt as a percentage of GDP declined by 2.2 percentage points from the end of 2017 to the end of 2018. Net external debt went from 91.7% to 89.5% during this period, as a result of an increase in GDP that more than offset the nominal increase in debt (Chart 2).
Next update: 21 May 2019
Note
1 The nominal GDP figures used for the calculation of the ratios are published by Statistics Portugal (Instituto Nacional de Estatística – INE). For the latest quarter, and when such figures are not available, the nominal GDP of this quarter is extrapolated, based on partial information disseminated by INE. Therefore, the estimate takes into account the GDP of the same quarter of the previous year, the published year-on-year rate of change in volume for the latest quarter, and the last published figure for the year-on-year growth rate of the GDP deflator. For the series on stocks, the nominal GDP used in the calculation of the ratios corresponds to the accumulated GDP of the last four quarters, regardless of the quarter to which it relates.
