Statistical Press Release – International Investment Position - March 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 March 2019.
At the end of March 2019, Portugal’s IIP stood at -€205.3 billion, reflecting a negative change of approximately €2.1 billion compared with the end of 2018 (Chart 1).
The change in the IIP was due to the negative impact of transactions (-€0.7 billion) and price changes (-€2.6 billion), which was partly offset by exchange rate changes (+€0.5 billion) and other adjustments (+€0.7 billion).
For more details on transactions, see the statistical press release on the balance of payments.
Price changes had a negative impact on the IIP due to the valuation on the liabilities side, most notably of resident firms in Portugal held by non-residents, and Treasury bonds held in non-residents’ portfolios. In the case of exchange rate changes, there was an appreciation in the US dollar, which impacted on the increase in the value in euros of euro-denominated assets held by residents.
In the period under review, the IIP as a percentage of GDP1 recorded a negative change, from -100.8 per cent at the end of 2018 to -101.1 per cent at the end of March 2019.
The net external debt of Portugal, which is the result of the IIP mostly excluding capital instruments, gold bullion and financial derivatives, was €180 billion in March 2019. As a percentage of GDP, net external debt declined by 0.4 percentage points between the end of 2018 and the end of March 2019. Net external debt went from 89.0 to 88.6 per cent, given that the increase in GDP more than offset the nominal increase in debt (Chart 2).
Next update: 21 Aug. 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.
