Statistical Press Release – International Investment Position – December 2019
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 2019. The published data incorporate revisions since 2016, in accordance to Banco de Portugal revision policy.
At the end of December 2019, Portugal’s IIP stood at -€213.9 billion, reflecting an improvement of around €2.8 billion compared with the end of 2018 (Chart 1).
The change in the IIP was mainly caused by transactions (€2.4 billion) and other adjustments (€1.9 billion), which were partly offset by price changes (-€1.4 billion).
For more detailed information on transactions, see Statistical Press Release on the Balance of payments.
In what concerns other adjustments, both the effect of the merge of one resident entity with a non-resident entity and the closure of one Portuguese branch abroad are to be highlighted.
Regarding price changes, it is worth noting in the liability component of the IIP the valuation of Treasury bonds in non-resident portfolios and, on the asset component, a valuation of assets as a result of a rise in the price of gold.
In the period under review, the IIP as a percentage of GDP1 also recorded a positive change of 5.1 percentage points (p.p.) from -106.3% at the end of 2018 to -101.2% at the end of 2019.
The net external debt of Portugal, which is the result of the IIP mostly excluding capital instruments, gold bullion and financial derivatives, stood at €179.8 billion in December 2019. As a percentage of GDP, net external debt decreased by 4.4 p.p. between the end of 2018 and the end of 2019. The net external debt changed from 89.5% to 85.1% (Chart 2).
Next update: 20 May 2020
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.
